Spontaneous Cognitions Following Academic Test Results

Abstract

Attribution research is usually based on reactive attributions demanded by the instructions themselves. However, examining spontaneous verbal reports (B. Weiner, 1985) avoids reduction to causal cognitions. In the present study, the authors used a multithematic approach focusing on causal, evaluative, and finalistic cognitions (see A. Abele, 1985; P. T. Wong & B. Weiner, 1981). In Experiment 1, spontaneous verbalizations by university students (N = 35) immediately after they had received their exam results in a statistics course were obtained. The students who performed better than they had expected tended to produce dominantly evaluative thoughts. The students who received worse results than they had expected showed an increase in causal reasoning. In Experiment 2, junior high school students (N = 96) who were uncertain of their expected grades in a math exam were more likely to spontaneously write down causal attributions following failure and to verbalize evaluative cognitions after success, whereas the students who were more certain of their expected grades produced slightly fewer causal attributions following failure.