Level of Aspiration and Students' Performance on a Concept-Formation Task

Abstract

Level of aspiration was studied as a function of performance on the first part of a concept-formation task and as a predictor of performance on later trials of that same task. 76 college students (54 women and 22 men) were asked to make a prediction as to how many trials they would answer correctly on the second part after completing the first part. It was hypothesized that (1) subjects who perform better on the first part set higher levels of aspiration, (2) high predictors perform better on the second part, and (3) subjects with higher grade point averages make higher predictions than those with lower GPAs. Subjects scoring higher on the first part did set higher levels of aspiration, but high predictors did not perform better on the second part of the task. Grade point average was not related to level of aspiration or to actual performance on the task.