ABSTRACT

The impact of mastery versus performance goals on performance outcomes has been largely researched, but few studies in the achievement goal paradigm have analyzed how feedback influences this dynamics. Using an innovative methodology, our research investigated how positive versus negative normative feedback influences the effect of approach achievement goals on response rapidness and accuracy in a competition-framed task. We also analyzed how individuals execute the same task, when given only task specific indications, with no goal framing or normative feedback. Our results indicated that for the accuracy dimension, goal framing and feedback have a significant effect, with the valence of feedback differentially influencing mastery versus performance goals. Another important finding refers to the high accuracy level of participants who were only guided by task-specific demands, leading us to debate the role of achievement goals versus procedural goals on performance outcomes.

KEYWORDS: achievement goals, normative feedback, response accuracy and rapidness.

PAGES: 11-30