Differences in Level of Aspiration and Performance as a Function of Whether a Task is Perceived as an Ability Test

Abstract

It was hypothesized that, when 73 college students were presented with two digit-symbol tasks and asked to estimate their score before each one, (1) they would make a second estimate that was higher than their first score, (2) they would make higher estimates and perform better on both tasks if the task was presented as an ability test than if it was presented as a visual-matching task, and (3) there would be a correlation between long-term educational aspirations and performance on the first task. The results showed that the students did not set a positive goal discrepancy based on their performance on the first task, although they did perform significantly better on the second than on the first task. The ability group did not make significantly higher estimates or perform significantly better than the visual-matching group. There was a significant positive correlation between students' long-term educational aspirations and their performance on the first task.