Predictability and Timing of Self-Report in Learned Helplessness Experiments

Abstract

An experiment is reported that attempted to assess the contribution of unpredictability to the learned helplessness effect. Contrary to learned helplessness theory, performance deficits resulted from exposure to uncontrollable events only when uncontrollability was also accompanied by unpredictability. Uncontrollable but predictable outcomes did not produce the effect. The experiment also demonstrated that the timing of self-report has an influence on expressed subjective confidence ratings, a finding of some significance in view of the methodology of human helplessness experiments.