Effects of information reliability in predicting task performance using ability and effort.

Abstract

University of Wisconsin—Mad ison Past research concluded that predictions of performance are a multiplicative function of ability and effort, although these studies were not designed to test between the averaging and multiplying models. The present research competitively tested these models by manipulating the reliability of information about effort and ability. The results showed that the greater the reliability of the ability information, the greater its effect on judged performance. Similarly, the greater the reliability of the effort information, the greater its effect on judged performance. In addition, the greater the reliability of one type of information, the less the effect of the other type of information. These findings are inconsistent with a multiplying model, but they are consistent with an averaging model in which the reliability of information influences its weight. Individual differences in weighting of effort and ability information were also found, and these differences were predictable from self reports of the relative importance of the variables. In the literature on achievement motivation and achievement attributions, it has been hypothesized that predictions of performance will be a multiplicative function of effort and ability. For example, Heider (1958) stated the hypothesis as follows: The personal constituents, namely power and trying, are related as a multiplicative combination, since the effective personal force is zero if either of them is zero. For instance, if a person has the ability, but does not try at all, he will make no progress toward the goal. (p. 83)