Abstract
Each of 42 college subjects performed first on a conjunctive attribute identification task and then was subjected to one of seven treatment conditions, six experimental and one filler control. The six conditions resulted from variations of two nested factors: Experience (success vs. failure) followed by Reference Group Norm (above- vs. equal-to- vs. below-RGN). Finally, each subject performed on a conjunctive criterion task similar to the initial one. Having repeatedly succeeded initially, the subjects given equal-to-RGN feedback performed most efficiently, while those given above- or below-RGN feedback did not perform any better than the control subjects. Having repeatedly failed initially, the subjects given equal-to-RGN feedback showed the most performance decrement, while those given above- or below-RGN feedback did not show any performance decrement. These findings were interpreted to support the hypothesis that the subjective probability induced by normative feedback mediates performance via an experimentally produced motive-like orientation.
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