Differential Tests of Two Cognitive Theories of ... - APA PsycNET

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1976, Vol. 34, No. 2, 295-304

Differential Tests of Two Cognitive Theories of Performance: Weiner Versus Kukla R. Michael Latta Drake University Three major hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis 1 was derived from Weiner's theory and proposes that success feedback leads to differential effort attributions resulting in increased performance quality for individuals low in achievement motivation and in decreased performance quality for individuals high in achievement motivation. Hypothesis 2 was derived from Kukla's theory and proposes that success feedback leads to an initial increase in performance quality for all individuals but results in differential asymptotic levels of performance quality for individuals high and low in achievement motivation, with those low in achievement motivation having a higher asymptote. Hypothesis 3 was also derived from Kukla's theory and suggests that significant relations should obtain among measures of speed of performance, performance quality, intended effort, and the individual's level of achievement motivation. Experiment 1 found that success feedback enhanced performance quality for everyone and did not result in differential effort attributions that mediate performance quality. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 concerning the effects of success feedback on quality of performance but also indicated an early asymptote in performance quality for subjects high in achievement motivation. Experiment 3 found that intended effort qualified as a more adequate explanation of differences in speed of performance and performance quality than the environmental factor experimenter-provided

Weiner (1972) proposed a cognitive theory of performance that incorporates perceptions, expectancies, and intentions as explanations of performance differences. Following Heider (1958), Weiner has suggested effort, ability (power), luck, and task difficulty as the perceived causes of performance at achievementoriented tasks. The model involves three stages that resemble an information-processing system: (a) task evaluation, (b) goal-directed behavior, and (c) outcomes and subsequent reevaluation. During the task evaluation stage, perceiving the task as achievement oriented evokes attributions to the four causal factors as potential causes of good or bad performance. The nature of these expectancies determines goal-directed behavior in Stage 2 that results in a performance quality constituting either success or failure. In

feedback.

Stage 3 the causal attributions to effort, ability, luck, and task difficulty are reevaluated in light of the adequacy of the performance level attained in Stage 2. The quality of performance attained on subsequent attempts of the task is determined by these new attributions in a recursive process. Research by Weiner and his colleagues has shown that attributions about the causes of success and failure systematically vary with achievement motivation. Specifically, individuals high in achievement motivation have been found to attribute successful performance of others to their effort (Frieze & Weiner, 1971), whereas individuals low in achievement motivation tend to attribute such performance to luck or to task difficulty (Kukla, 1970). Weiner (1972, p. 395) contends that these findings may explain other findings demonstrating individuals low in Experiment 1 and Experiments 2 and 3 were achievement motivation to exhibit greater presented as two papers at the annual Midwestern increments in the quality of performance folPsychological Association Meetings, Chicago, May 2, lowing experimenter-provided success feed1974. back relative to individuals high in achieveRequests for reprints should be sent to R. Michael Latta, Department of Psychology, Drake University, ment motivation (Weiner, 1966; Weiner & Schneider, 1971). Believing that quality of Des Moines, Iowa 50311. 295

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performance varies with effort, individuals high in achievement motivation are said to "relax" following successful performance and reduce their effort. This reduction in effort reduces their quality of performance on subsequent attempts at the task. Believing their quality of performance does not vary with effort, individuals low in achievement motivation are said to exhibit renewed goal striving following successful performance, and their quality of performance increases on subsequent attempts at the task (Weiner, 1972, p. 320). Within this analysis, attributions to effort arising from the experience of successful performance are considered an adequate explanation of differences in quality of performance on subsequent attempts at a task by individuals high and low in achievement motivation. Kukla (1972b) offered an alternative cognitive theory of performance based upon the properties of behavioral intentions outlined by Dulany (1968) and Fishbein (1967). Unlike Weiner, Kukla specified two dimensions of performance: speed and quality. Here speed of performance (the actual effort exerted at a task) as well as quality of performance are assumed to be an increasing function of the amount of effort a person intends to exert at a task (intended effort). A postulate of the theory specifies that individuals who perceive themselves as more capable of doing well at the task will generally have lower intended effort than will individuals who perceive themselves as relatively incapable of doing well at the task. Since individuals high in achievement motivation report a higher estimate of their ability relative to individuals low in achievement motivation after having worked on an identical task (Kukla, 1972a, Experiment 1), the theory makes the further assumption that individuals high in achievement motivation will generally have lower intended effort than will individuals low in achievement motivation because of greater perceived ability. Thus, achievement motivation (perceived ability) influences speed of performance and performance quality through the behavioral intention intended effort. In Kukla's theory of performance, performance speed and quality are also influ-

enced by perceptions of task difficulty. Here, perceived task difficulty is assumed to be related to intended effort by an inverted-U function (Weiner, Heckhausen, Meyer, & Cook, 1972). The same relation holds for speed and quality of performance and perceived task difficulty (Atkinson, 1958), presumably because intended effort directly determines all aspects of performance. Hence, maximal intended effort, speed of performance and quality of performance occur for tasks perceived to be of moderate difficulty. Analysis of perceived task difficulty also points out the difference between speed of performance and performance quality. Although a given level of intended effort and speed of performance are considered adequate for good performance from the individual's point of view, actual performance quality may be low due to a misperception of task difficulty. In general, it is assumed that speed of performance and quality of performance will be highly correlated. Although these two cognitive theories are similar in many respects, they permit differential predictions about the quality of performance exhibited by individuals high and low in achievement motivation following experimenter-provided success feedback on a task perceived as moderately difficult. Weiner (1972) predicted increments and decrements in the quality of performance for individuals low and high in achievement motivation, respectively. Here, success is assumed to affect attributions to effort that produce differences in performance quality. Kukla (1974b), on the other hand, predicted an initial increment in the quality of performance for everyone who receives success feedback followed by a lower asymptote in the quality of performance for individuals high in achievement motivation compared with individuals low in achievement motivation. Here, the experience of success is generally assumed to alter perceived task difficulty from difficult to easy, at least for laboratory tasks such as anagrams and digit-symbol substitution. Thus, repeated successful performance results in a general decrease in perceived difficulty, leading first to maximal intended effort, then to minimal intended effort. A lower asymptote in quality of performance should occur for individuals,

WEINER VERSUS KUKLA

high in achievement motivation because perception of the task as easy should usually occur earlier for them due to greater perceived ability, and perceiving the task as easy results in lowered intended effort. Three experiments were conducted to test the ability of these two theories to predict differences in performance quality (number of correct solutions) on a digit-symbol substitution task under uniform laboratory conditions. No-feedback control groups were employed in each study to determine whether increments or decrements in the quality of performance of individuals high and low in achievement motivation following experimenter-provided success feedback are greater than those attributable to practice or loss of interest. EXPERIMENT 1

Experiment 1 was designed to test the assumptions of Weiner's theory of performance regarding the relationships of effort cognitions to achievement motivation and performance quality. Specifically, individuals high in achievement motivation should be more likely to attribute their own successful performance to their own effort than individuals low in achievement motivation. This was done because previous research either did not ask the participants to make judgments about their own performance (Frieze & Weiner, 1971), used a task that was ambiguous as to the causes of success and failure (Kukla, 1970), or used failure feedback rather than success (Meyer, 1970). Since Weiner (1972) considered effort cognitions to be causally related to performance quality, attributions to effort made by participants about their own behavior should predict performance quality. Because effort is decreased following success by individuals high in achievement motivation, the subsequent performance quality of these individuals should immediately start to decline below a quality attributable to loss of interest. Because renewed effort follows success by individuals low in achievement motivation, the subsequent performance quality of these individuals should immediately begin to rise above a quality attributable to practice.

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Method A 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design with two levels of achievement motivation (high-low), two levels of feedback about performance (success-no feedback), and two levels of causal attribution (requested-not requested) was employed. Subjects. Scores from the short form of the Mehrabian (1968) scale of resultant achievement motivation were used to block subjects.1 This scale contains 26 items to be answered on a —4 (disagree) to 4 (agree) scale. Subjects were 160 males selected from a group of 240 introductory psychology students tested 2 weeks prior to the experiment. The 80 high-achievement-motivation subjects had a mean score of 16.6 and constituted the upper third of the original distribution of 240 scores, while the 80 lowachievement-motivation subjects had a mean score of —14.2 and constituted the lower third of the original distribution. Procedure. Subjects were randomly assigned to conditions and were administered one practice trial followed by six 30-sec test trials of a digit-symbol substitution task. This task involved substituting the highly similar symbols

± , L, -J, T , T, and 1 for the digits 1 through 6. No memory was involved, since an example of the proper matches was always visible. Each trial consisted of the subject attempting to fill a single worksheet of 50 possible substitutions. The performance measures taken on this task were speed of performance (the total number of attempted substitutions per trial) and performance quality (the total number of correct substitutions per trial). The digit-symbol substitution task and the performance measures were chosen for their sensitivity to the effects of motivation and their use in previous research (Weiner, 1972, p. 240). Following Weiner (1966), subjects in the four success feedback conditions were given success feedback on even-numbered trials by false norms indicating that the subject was doing twice as well as most college students attempting the task. Following each trial, subjects in the attribution conditions were requested to check on each of six paired-comparison scales the extent to which effort, ability, luck, and task difficulty influenced performance quality. These causal attributions were made in response to the question, "Which of these factors influenced your performance on the last trial to a greater extent?" The paired-comparisons format also included a certainty rating. Thus, if the subject was uncertain as to which of the two factors in a comparison was most important, he checked at the midpoint of the scale that was anchored with the word uncertain. 1 For the male version, Mehrabian (1968) has reported low correlations with the social desirability scale of Crowne and Marlowe (1960), a 10-week test-retest reliability coefficient of .78, and reasonable validity coefficients. See also Mehrabian (1969).

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298 TABLE 1

MEAN ATTRIBUTION SCORES FOR INDIVIDUALS HIGH AND Low IN ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION IN EXPERIMENT 1 AS A FUNCTION OF FEEDBACK Causal factorb Group

a

High-feedback High-no feedback Low-feedback Low-no feedback

Effort

Ability

Luck

94.5 96.4 87.2 90.5

95.8 92.0 91.8 90.5

1.5 1.0 13.5 11.6

Task difficulty

71.8 78.0 63.0 59.5

»2V = 20. b The larger the score, the greater is the importance assigned to the causal factor as a determinant of performance.

The scales were 10 inches (3 m) long and were numbered from 1 to 99 in multiples of 10.

Results and Discussion Attributions. Using the paired-comparisons technique, it was possible to derive a separate attribution score for each of the four causal factors effort, ability, luck, and task difficulty. This resulted in four scores for attribution (one for each causal factor) for each of the 80 subjects who were requested to attribute to causal factors. The first hypothesis predicted that individuals high in achievement motivation generally attribute their success to their own efforts more so than individuals low in achievement motivation. Table 1 presents the mean attribution scores for effort, ability, luck, and task difficulty after averaging over trials. A multivariate analysis of variance was performed on the average attribution scores using achievement motivation and feedback as classification variables and attribution to the four causal factors as correlated dependent measures. An overall test (HotellingLawley's trace) indicated that differential attributions were associated only with achievement motivation, F(4, 73) = 2.91, p < .03. Univariate tests revealed subjects low in achievement motivation to consider luck more important than subjects high in achievement motivation, F ( l , 76) = 9.64, p < .003. The opposite pattern was found for attributions to task difficulty, F(l, 76) = 3.76, p < .05, with subjects low in achievement motivation considering task difficulty to be less of an

influence on their performance than subjects high in achievement motivation. Contrary to the first hypothesis, attributions to effort were not found to be significantly related to level of achievement motivation. Attributions to ability were also not significantly related to level of achievement motivation. Neither the overall test nor the univariate tests indicated attributions to vary with feedback or the interaction of achievement motivation with feedback. The means in Table 1 suggest that most people view the internal factors effort and ability to determine success much more so than the external factors luck and task difficulty. This similarity of attribution to effort for the high- and low-achievement-motivation subjects is surprising, given the large differences in average level of achievement motivation for the subjects categorized as high and low in achievement motivation in this experiment. Relation between attribution to causal jactors and performance quality. Total scores for attributions to the four causal factors, speed of performance, and performance quality were found by summing across the six trials. The second hypothesis derived from Weiner's theory stated that attributions to effort should generally predict performance quality. To test this hypothesis, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to find the best predictor among the causal factors with performance quality and speed as criterion variables. Achievement motivation was employed as a continuous variable, while feedback was scored dichotomously and the interaction term was generated by multiplication (Kerlinger & Pedhazur, 1973). Only attribution to effort was found to be significantly related to speed of performance, F(l, 78) = 3.60, p < .05. Contrary to the second hypothesis, none of the causal factors were significantly related to performance quality. The same solutions resulted using a forward, backward, and stepwise procedure (cf. Draper & Smith, 1961), which indicated that order of entry was not important. Effects of achievement motivation, feedback, and attribution on performance quality. The third hypothesis tested in this experiment

WEINER VERSUS KUKLA

predicted the performance quality of individuals high in achievement motivation to decline below a level attributable to a loss of interest following success, whereas the performance quality of individuals low in achievement motivation was predicted to rise above a level attributable to practice following success. An analysis of variance conducted on the performance quality measure with achievement motivation, feedback, and attribution as between-subjects factors and trials as a withinsubjects factor indicated a Feedback X Attribution interaction, F(l, 152) = 4.0, p < .01, and a four-way Achievement Motivation X Feedback X Attribution X Trials interaction, F(5, 760) = 2.23, p < .05. Table 2 presents the performance quality of subjects in the eight groups as it changes over trials. The general increase in performance quality over trials is probably due to a practice effect but does not obscure group differences. In Table 2, Lines 2 and 4, and 6 and 8, indicate no support for Weiner's hypothesis concerning the differential effects of success feedback on the subsequent performance quality of subjects high and low in achievement motivation. Not only did success feedback alone produce an increment in performance quality for subjects low in achievement motivation, but it also produced an increment in performance quality for subjects high . in achievement motivation. These increments are both greater than any increases in performance quality attributable to practice, since both groups' performance quality was greater than that of the no feedback-no attribution controls. Comparing Lines 1 and 4 of Table 2 shows that attributing to causal factors in the presence of success feedback increases the performance quality of subjects high in achievement motivation. If, as Weiner suggested, success leads to differential effort attributions resulting in differential performance qualities for subjects high and low in achievement motivation, the attribution process should not have facilitated the performance quality of these subjects. EXPERIMENT 2

The results of Experiment 1 were consistent with Kukla's theory in that success feedback

299 TABLE 2

PERFORMANCE QUALITY FOR INDIVIDUALS HIGH AND Low IN ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AS IT CHANGES OVER TRIALS IN EXPERIMENT 1 AS A FUNCTION OF FEEDBACK AND ATTRIBUTION

Trial no. Groupa

High-feedbackattribution High-feedbackno attribution High-no feedback-attribution High-no feedback-no attribution Low-feedbackattribution Low-feedbackno attribution Low-no feedback-attribution Low-no feedback-no attribution

1

23.4 23.9 25.6 25.7

27.5

27.5

23.9 24.6 25.6 26.9

26.6

26.8

23.8 25.4 26.1 26.5

27.4

27.3

22.6 23.0 24.3

25.7

25.6

26.3

23.8

24.5 25.9

26.1

26.2

26.3

24.7

25.4 28.9 27.9 28.8

29.7

23.7

23.7

25.4 26.7

26.1

26.9

23.2

23.7

25.0 26.0 26.6

26.9

20.

produced an increase in subsequent performance quality for both categories of achievement motivation. Experiment 2 was designed to test the joint effects of feedback and achievement motivation on performance quality predicted by Kukla's theory. Specifically, Kukla's theory predicts that success feedback leads to an initial increase in performance quality for all individuals but differential asymptotes in performance quality for individuals high and low in achievement motivation. Here, the inverted-U function relating perceived task difficulty to performance quality suggests that individuals high in achievement motivation (high perceived ability) have a lower performance quality asymptote than individuals low in achievement motivation (low perceived ability) when given success feedback. This effect of success feedback is due to individuals high in achievement motivation perceiving the initially difficult task as easy sooner than individuals low in achievement motivation under conditions of continuous success. Thus Kukla's theory predicts an overall positive influence of success feedback on performance quality and differential

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asymptotes for individuals high and low in achievement motivation. Method Subjects* Subjects were 80 males categorized as high or low in achievement motivation, selected for Experiment 2 from an initial sample of 130 introductory psychology students following the procedure used in Experiment 1. The mean achievement motivation scores for the high and low groups were 15.3 and —14.8, respectively. Procedure. From each achievement motivation category, 20 subjects were randomly assigned to the success feedback or no-feedback control groups and were administered the digit-symbol substitution task following the procedure of Experiment 1. As in Experiment 1, performance quality was measured by taking the number of correct substitutions per trial.

Results and Discussion The results of a 2 X 2 X 6 repeatedmeasures analysis of variance performed on the performance quality scores indicated a main effect for feedback, F ( l , 76) = 4.71, p < .03, and a main effect for trials, F (5,380) = 31.43, p < .0001, as the only significant sources of variation in the performance quality scores. Figure 1 presents the mean quality of performance for subjects high and low in achievement motivation as it develops over trials as a function of feedback. Inspection of Figure 1 indicates that subjects high in achievement motivation receiving success feedback reached their performance quality asymptote on Trial 3, whereas subjects low in achievement motivation receiving success feedback continued to improve in performance quality from Trials 3-6. Simpleeffects tests using Sheffes method indicated that subjects low in achievement motivation receiving success feedback had a significantly higher performance quality than their corresponding no-feedback control group from Trial 3 to Trial 6 (p < .05). The other three groups did not differ significantly in performance quality at any of the six trials. Thus the effects of the feedback variable on performance quality predicted by Kukla was found in Experiment 2. EXPERIMENT 3

Since Experiments 1 and 2 provided evidence consistent with Kukla's interpretation of the effects of successful performance on

subsequent performance quality, Experiment 3 was designed to test Kukla's assumptions concerning achievement motivation, intended effort, speed of performance, and quality of performance. Recall that Kukla's cognitive theory of performance makes the following assumptions: (a) An individual who is low in achievement motivation should have greater intended effort than an individual who is high in achievement motivation because the former has a tendency to attribute relatively little ability to himself compared with the latter. Thus, the individual low in achievement motivation thinks that trying hard will compensate for his lack of ability, (b) Intended effort is positively related to speed of performance. This assumption reflects the performer's belief that performance has two aspects, quantity and quality. Hence, as an individual's perception of his own ability decreases, he attempts to do well at a task by means of being highly productive, regardless of the quality of any single attempt, (c) Speed of performance is positively related to performance quality. Trying hard often leads to an overall quality of performance that cannot be reached any other way. This assumption reflects the individual's belief that indolence rarely pays off. (d) Finally, an individual's intended effort should predict both speed of performance and performance quality. This assumption is similar to that outlined in (c) and reflects the fact that intentions are many times realized.2 Method Subjects. Subjects were 40 males classified as high or low in achievement motivation, selected from the top and bottom thirds of an original distribution of 125 introductory psychology students following the previously described procedure. The average achievement motivation scores for the high and low categories were 29 and —19, respectively. 2 It should be pointed out that these theoretical relations among intended effort, performance speed, and performance quality probably hold only for many simple laboratory tasks. For example, maximal intended effort probably leads to impaired performance quality at complex tasks, and fast performance may tend to impair performance quality at these tasks. Hence, these predictions probably do not apply to artists, architects, or for that matter, authors.

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WEINER VERSUS KUKLA Procedure. Following random assignment of subjects to success feedback or no-feedback control groups, the procedure was identical to that used in Experiments 1 and 2, except that all subjects were requested to estimate their intended effort following the usual practice trial. As in Experiments 1 and 2, the number of correct digit-symbol substitutions served as the measure of performance quality. For this study, the number of attempted digit-symbol substitutions was also recorded and constituted the measure of performance speed.

Results and Discussion Performance measures. The variables total speed of performance and total performance quality were formed by averaging over trials. The group means for these variables appear in Table 3. A 2 X 2 multivariate analysis of variance with total speed of performance and total performance quality as correlated dependent measures was conducted to test the hypothesis concerning the effects of achievement motivation and success feedback on performance. This analysis indicated a significant overall effect of achievement motivation on performance, F(2,35) = 4.08, p < .03, that only applied to performance quality (p < .02) and a marginally significant overall Achieve-

TABLE 3 MEAN TOTAL SPEED OF PERFORMANCE AND MEAN TOTAL PERFORMANCE QUALITY IN EXPERIMENT 3 AS A FUNCTION OF ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AND FEEDBACK

Groupa

Low achievement motivationfeedback Low achievement motivationno feedback High achievement motivationfeedback High achievement motivationno feedback

Total speed of performance

Total performance quality

149.5

135.6

160.6

135.3

159.7

132.9

145.0

116.4

10.

ment Motivation X Feedback interaction, F (2,35) = 2.82, p < .07, that applied strongly to performance speed (p < .02) and weakly to performance quality (p < .08). The most striking aspect of the means reported in Table 3 is the deviance of the highachievement-motivation-no-feedback group. The large increase in performance quality produced by success feedback given to individuals high in achievement motivation suggests that these individuals are dependent upon success feedback in the sense that the • LOW ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION FEEDBACK absence of such feedback impairs the quality O LOW ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION NO FEEDBACK of their performance compared with individu• HIGH ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION FEEDBACK als low in achievement motivation. Indi• HIGH ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION NO FEEDBACK viduals high in achievement motivation seem 30 i— to require such feedback, probably because its absence lowers their effort. This explanation 29 is supported by the significant Achievement 28 Motivation X Feedback interaction for total >speed of performance where individuals high 27 in achievement motivation lower their speed o LU of performance in the absence of success O 26 feedback. < Accuracy of Kukla's assumptions. Further 25 o analyses were conducted to check the accu24 racy of the assumptions of Kukla's theory. As Zsuggested in Assumption (a), subjects low in 23 achievement motivation exhibited greater intended effort {X = 48.2) compared with sub22 jects high in achievement motivation (X = 2 3 4 42.8), but the difference was not statistically TRIALS significant, t(36) = 1.0, p < .33. Intended efFIGURE 1. Mean performance quality as a function of achievement motivation and feedback in Experi- fort was found to be positively related to total speed of performance, r(3&) = .36, p < ment 2.

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R. MICHAEL LATTA TABLE 4 DIFFERENTIAL TESTS OF TWO THEORIES Weiner's theory

Kukla's theory

Finding

1. Attributions to effort should predict performance quality.

1. Ratings of intended effort should predict both performance speed and quality.

1. Attributions to effort predicted speed but not quality of performance (Experiment 1). Ratings of intended effort predicted both performance speed and quality.

2. Success enhances performance quality for individuals low in achievement motivation and impairs it for individuals high in achievement motivation.

2. Success enhances performance quality regardless of level of achievement motivation.

2. Success enhanced performance quality regardless of level of achievement motivation (Experiments 1 and 2).

3. Success produces immediate increments and decrements in performance quality for individuals low and high in achievement motivation, respectively.

3. Success initially increases performance quality for everyone followed by a lower performance quality asymptote for individuals high in achievement motivation.

3. Success initially increases performance quality regardless of level of achievement motivation, followed by a lower performance quality asymptote for individuals high in achievement motivation (Experiment 2).

.02, and total speed of performance was found to be positively related to total performance quality, r(3S) = .69, p < .0001, as stated in Assumptions (b) and (c). 3 A multiple-regression analysis was conducted on total speed of performance and total performance quality scores using achievement motivation, feedback, and intended effort as possible predictors. This analysis was conducted following the procedure outlined in Experiment 1. In accordance with Assumption (d), intended effort was found to be the best predictor of both total speed of performance, F(l, 3S) = 5.82, p < .05, and total performance quality, F ( l , 3 8 ) = 11.9, p < .002. Evidently cognitions about effort, whether they be attributions occurring after performing or behavioral intentions occurring before performing, are more useful in predicting speed of performance and performance quality than are environmental variables such as experimenter-provided feedback. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The major hypotheses and related findings of this investigation are presented in Table 4. Generally, but with some exceptions, the findings outlined in Table 4 confirm Kukla's theory and disconfirm Weiner's. However,

since the present investigation tested the two theories for a relatively simple task and under a relatively uniform set of experimental conditions, it would be premature to draw conclusions beyond the general conclusion that these initial studies provide more support for Kukla's theory. The two theories are sufficiently precise to permit differential predictions, and this is encouraging for future research along these lines. The findings of Experiment 1 suggest that Weiner's predictions about the relations among achievement motivation, effort attributions, and performance quality following experimenter-provided success feedback are not accurate. Experiment 2 results supported the prediction from Kukla's theory of differential performance quality asymptotes for individuals high and low in achievement motivation following repeated success. Thus Kukla's assumption of an inverted-U function relating perceived task difficulty to performance quality was partially confirmed. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 suggest that the 3 These are pooled within correlations. The pooled within correlation for speed of performance and performance quality for Experiment 1 was r(l58) = .89, p < .0001, while that of Experiment 2 was r(78) = .97, p < .001.

WEINER VERSUS KUKLA

cognitive variable intended effort is an adequate predictor of differences in both speed of performance and performance quality. These findings suggest that the class of intervening variables called behavioral intentions can explain performance differences. Since Kukla's theory specifies that perceived task difficulty combines with perceived ability in determining intended effort, which in turn determines speed of performance and performance quality, further research is required. For one thing, a variety of task difficulties and abilities need to be employed to determine whether different levels of intended effort, speed of performance, and performance quality result. Kukla (1974) has provided some initial evidence concerning this question by showing that individuals high in achievement motivation exhibit higher performance quality than individuals low in achievement motivation when the participants were told that the task was difficult. The converse was found to hold when the participants were told that the task was easy. However, in that study as well as in the present study, perceptions of task difficulty were not independently checked. These perceptions must be measured to certify that perceived difficulty corresponds to the difficulty level that the experimenter has stated and to be certain that perceived difficulty interacts with perceived ability in producing intended effort. Finally, more adequate attention should be given to participants' perceptions of their own performance in relation to experimenter-provided feedback. If repeated success feedback does not produce the perception of task ease, the inverted-U function relating perceived task difficulty to performance speed and quality would not apply. What determines perceptions of ease or difficulty is probably much more than success; it includes the ups and downs of expectancies of success and, probably, the level of aversive affect encountered in attempting the task. Turning to Weiner's theory, little support is indicated in Table 4. One discontinuing finding came from Experiment 1 where attributions to effort did not vary with achievement motivation, regardless of the presence or absence of success feedback. A second

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disconfirming finding from that experiment was that attributions to effort did not predict performance quality as Weiner's theory suggests. In order for success feedback to affect performance quality in the manner specified by Weiner's theory, it is essential that attributions to effort vary with achievement motivation and predict performance quality. It could be argued that the digit-symbol substitution task is too easy and thus an insufficient means for properly evaluating Weiner's theory. Weiner has contended (Weiner et al., 1972) that tasks of intermediate difficulty are most likely to elicit effort attributions that influence performance quality. Estimates of the perceived difficulty of the digit-symbol substitution task were obtained from an independent sample of 60 male students following a practice trial. The estimates were made on a 1 (extremely easy) to 99 (extremely difficult) scale. The results indicated that the task was perceived as intermediate in difficulty (X = 61), the most advantageous level of task difficulty for evaluating Weiner's theory. In defense of Weiner's position, it should be pointed out that effort attributions did predict speed of performance in Experiment 1 and that the effects of failure may be mediated by the attribution process as specified in his theory.4 Future research may confirm that portion of the theory. To test completely the portion of Weiner's theory investigated in these experiments, a variety of tasks are required, since task difficulty probably influences the first stage in the attribution process as suggested by Kukla's theory. Inconsistent with Weiner's theory, a third finding in Experiments 1 and 2 showed that success feedback enhanced performance quality regardless of level of achievement motivation. Once again in defense of Weiner, the possibility exists that success feedback works in the manner that he has specified only in ambiguous situations where subjective success rather than experimenter-provided success is salient. As with any theory incorporating a personality variable, powerful situational factors such as experimenter-provided feedback 4 Weiner and Sierad (1975) have demonstrated the usefulness of Weiner's theory in predicting the effects of failure feedback on speed of performance.

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about performance may obscure the effects of individual differences in the tendency to respond to subjective success specified in Weiner's theory. This is especially true, since Weiner's theory deals with subjective success that may or may not be congruent with experimenter-provided feedback. Future research should clarify the limitations of these two cognitive theories of performance. REFERENCES Atkinson, J. W. Towards experimental analysis of human motivation in terms of motives, expectancies, and incentives. In J. W. Atkinson (Ed.), Motives in fantasy, action, and society. Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1958. Atkinson, J. W., & Birch, D. The dynamics of action. New York: Wiley, 1970. Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. A. A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1960, 24, 349354. Draper, N. R., & Smith, H. Applied regression analysis. New York: Wiley, 1966. Dulany, D. E. Awareness, rules, and propositional control. A confrontation with S-R behavior theory. In D. Horton & T. Dixon (Eds.), Verbal behavior and general behavior theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Fishbein, M. Attitude and the prediction of behavior. In M. Fishbein (Ed.), Readings in attitude theory and measurement. New York: Wiley, 1967. Frieze, I., & Weiner, B. Cue utilization and attributional judgments for success and failure. Journal of Personality, 1971, 39, 591-605. Heider, F. The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley, 1958. Kerlinger, F. N., & Pedhazur, E. J. Multiple regression in behavioral research. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973.

Kukla, A. Cognitive determinants of achieving behavior. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970. Kukla, A. Attributional determinants of achievement related behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 21, 166-174. (a) Kukla, A. Foundations of an attributional theory of performance. Psychological Review, 1972, 79, 454470. (b) Kukla, A. Performance as a function of resultant achievement motivation (perceived ability) and perceived difficulty. Journal of Research in Personality, 1974, 7, 374-383. Mehrabian, A. Male and female scales of the tendency to achieve. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1968, 28, 493-502. Mehrabian, A. Measures of achieving tendency. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1969, 29, 445-451. Meyer, W. V. Selbstverantworlichkeit und Leistungsmotivation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ruhr-Universitat, Bochum, Germany, 1970. Weiner, B. The role of success and failure in the learning of easy and complex tasks. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1966, 3, 339344. Weiner, . B. Theories of motivation. Chicago: Markham, 1972. Weiner, B., Heckhausen, H., Meyer, W., & Cook, R. Causal ascriptions and achievement behavior: A conceptual analysis of effort and reanalysis of locus of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 21, 239-248. Weiner, B., & Schneider, K. Drive versus cognitive theory. A reply to Boor and Harmon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1971, 18, 258262. Weiner, B., & Sierad, J. Misattribution for failure and enhancement of achievement strivings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 31, 415-421. (Received October 6, 1975)