Date of Award

12-1986

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Wayne Harrison

Second Advisor

Douglas Cellar

Third Advisor

Robert Ottemann

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of feedback on task performance under a low performance standard (goal). Fifty-two undergraduate students were presented with the task of mentally summing seven single-digit numbers to solve a problem. Subjects either received a high or low goal for the number of problems to solve in 15 minutes, and continuous feedback or no feedback about how many problems they had solved. It was predicted that feedback would result in higher performance for high goal subjects and lower performance for low goal subjects. A marginal main effect of goal difficulty (p<.067) in the predicted direction was obtained, but no goal difficulty-feedback interaction. Possible explanations for the observed results are discussed along with implications for future research.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha.

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