Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Positive Feedback On Performance Perception, Traci Schmidt

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Nonverbal communication may have an effect on people’s perceptions of themselves and their performance on certain tasks. When people receive some type of positive feedback while performing an assignment, they may overestimate the extent to which the task was successfully completed. During this study, 22 participants were asked to take three short spelling tests, then evaluate their performance on each test. For one of the tests, the researcher provided words of encouragement and nods of approval while scoring the test. There was no feedback given during the scoring of the other two tests. While the subjects did not consistently rate …