Self-study
In an experiment, tennis players who were told that their performance would be used to assess only the quality of their rackets performed much better than an equally skilled group of tennis players who were told that their tennis-playing talent would be measured.
Summary
Some tennis players were told that their performance would be used to assess only the quality of their rackets. Others who were equally skilled as the first group of tennis players were told that their tennis-playing talent would be measured. The first group performed better than the second.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
What one believes is being assessed in one’s own performance can influence that performance.
3.
The situation described above most ███████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████████
a
People do less ████ ██ █ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████ █████ ███
Unsupported. The stimulus doesn’t tell us that either of the groups was told they would be closely watched. They were told the performance would be assessed for different things, but that doesn’t indicate a difference in how closely the two groups were told they would be watched.
b
People execute a ████ ████ ████████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ███████
Strongly supported. The group that was told only the rackets would be assessed performed better than the group that was told their own talent (ability) was being assessed.
c
People perform a ████ ████ ████████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████
Unsupported. We don’t know whether there was any difference in the confidence level of the two groups.
d
People who assess █████ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ████ █████ ██████ █████ ██ ████████████
Unsupported. We don’t know anything about the tennis players’ own assessment of their own talent and how that compared to actual performance.
e
People who think ████ █ ████████ ███████████ ████ ██████ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ███ ███████
Unsupported. We don’t know where there was any difference in the groups’ perceptions regarding whether a superior performance would please the people evaluating the performances.