Verbal praise was given 40 undergraduates who worked on a mirror-tracing task by an agent taking the role of experimenter, a member of the subject's peer group, or a peer with expertise on the task. Experimenter's praise improved performance most and peer's praise least; the expert peer's praise was intermediate. Verbal praise affected rate of improvement. The improvement in quality of performance was not at the expense of time needed to complete the task.
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