Sixty ten and eleven year-old girls worked on a two-choice discrimination task under one of five conditions: no feedback; positive feedback following successes; positive feedback following failures; negative feedback following successes; and negative feedback following failures. The girls persisted longest on the task when they received positive feedback following failures. The argument is made that preadolescent girls attend most readily to the affective dimension of verbal feedback and that they are most motivated by positive statements that are not contingent on achievement or merit.
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