The perception of outcome-effort covariation in younger and older men
The subjects, 21 younger (average CA = 18.95, SD = 1.13) and 21 older (average CA = 68.62, SD = 4.75) men, participated in a bogus convergent-thinking task in which they rated their effort expenditure after experiencing varying degrees of success. It was proposed that younger, but not older men would exhibit outcome-effort covariation. As predicted, results indicated that younger, but not older men perceived that they tried harder when they succeeded relative to when they failed. The findings imply that the older men’s lack of outcome-effort covariation has inimical consequences for their learning in contexts where initial failure experiences are likely. “Attribution retraining” was suggested as a potential intervention strategy. Research with older adults is advocated to examine whether causal ascription of failure to lack of effort is related to persistence at the task. © 1977 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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- Gerontology
- 3903 Education systems
- 1301 Education Systems
- 1103 Clinical Sciences
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Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Gerontology
- 3903 Education systems
- 1301 Education Systems
- 1103 Clinical Sciences