The Interaction of Goal Difficulty/Specificity and Feedback on Task Performance.

Abstract

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the combination of specific, hard goals and knowledge of results (KR) will lead to better performance than do-best goals with and without KR and specific, hard goals without KR. It was also predicted that the latter three conditions would not differ significantly. The first study yielded equivocal support for the predictions, but these results were attributed to possible flaws in the design of the study. A second study which eliminated these potential flaws confirmed the predictions. One intriguing result was that specific hard goal-KR subjects, despite performing best on the task as a whole, performed worst on one sub-element of the task which reflected degree of incidental learning. The implications of the findings are discussed. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1981
Accession Number
ADA100079

Entities

People

  • Brenda Beitzell
  • Edwin A. Locke
  • Karyll N. Shaw
  • Philip Bobko

Organizations

  • University of Maryland

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Applied Psychology
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Data Analysis
  • Human Behavior
  • Human Resources
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Research
  • Motivation
  • Naval Air Stations
  • Naval Operations
  • New York
  • Organizational Structure
  • Psychology
  • Resource Management
  • Students
  • Task Performance And Analysis
  • Training

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Systems Analysis and Design