Separate groups of students in general psychology were told that they had either failed or succeeded on a test which presumably measured their general background knowledge. Educationally related words were then rated on the semantic differential by these Ss and were compared to the ratings of a control condition. Words were rated significantly more active by the success group, but no experimental-control difference was found for the failure group on the activity dimension. Neither the evaluative nor the potency dimension showed any difference between groups. An approach to the study of motivation through analysis of changes in word meanings was proposed.
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