Seven studies of performance expectancy as a determinant of actual performance

Abstract

Seven experiments were performed to explore the effects of expectancy-performance inconsistency on the undoing of correct responses (Aronson and Carlsmith, 1962). Experiments 1 and 2 reproduced the Expectancy × Performance interaction; the dissonant effect of High Performance on Low Expectancy was significantly reduced from 1 to 2 by reducing the number of trials used to induce Expectancy in 2. Experiments 3 to 7 failed to yield an Expectancy × Performance interaction. Experiments 3 to 6 examined the effects of trial-by-trial feedback on expectancy strength and hypothesis invention. Experiment 7, which included conditions requiring recall of previous judgments, suggested that the repeated finding of greater response change by Low-Performance Ss may be explained by differences in memory as well as by differences in motivation to do well.