Development of the Magnitude-Covariation and Compensation Schemata in Ability and Effort Attributions of Performance

Abstract

KUN, ANNA. Development of the Magnitude-Covariation and Compensation Schemata in Ability and Effort Attributions of Performance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 862-873. The development of 3 causal-inference schemata were examined in achievement attributions. Children aged 5-12 years and college students judged hypothetical persons' ability or effort from information about task outcome, task difficulty, and magnitude of the complementary personal characteristic, effort or ability. According to the magnitude-covariation schema, a change in the degree of an effect (success) is positively related to a change in the degree of a facilitative cause (ability or effort). This schema was present and fully developed already in the youngest age group (5-6-year-olds). According to the direct-compensation schema, if an effect (outcome) remains invariant, change in the strength of an inhibitory cause (task difficulty) is positively related to change in the strength of a facilitative cause (ability or effort). This schema was also present in the youngest age group, although it showed some development through age 9. According to the inverse-compensation schema, if an effect remains invariant, change in the strength of a facilitative cause (effort) is negatively related to change in the strength of some other facilitative cause (ability). This schema was absent among 5-6-year-olds, who used a halo schema instead to infer a positive correlation between ability and effort at constant levels of performance. Inverse compensation was used by age 9 to infer effort from ability cues, but the halo schema continued to dominate ability ascriptions from effort cues. Schematic development was related to previous studies; effects of achievement variables on the compensation schemata were examined; finally, the implication of the halo schema for the development of a sense of competence was considered.