The effects of immediate knowledge of results, goal setting instructions, and subjects' sex upon answering multiple choice questions were evaluated in a group of seventh grade students. None of the main effects and none of the interactions reached significance. To further evaluate the lack of significance the actual functionality of the variables was investigated. Control subjects were asked to judge how sure they were of their answers to the test questions, and whether they had adopted the goals. The results indicated that the sub jects had intrinsic knowledge of results and failed to adopt specific goals. The findings demonstrate the importance of controlling for these variables in studies of knowledge of results on academic tests. THERE HAS BEEN considerable confusion in the educa tional literature regarding the effects of immediate knowl edge of results (IKR) on ongoing performance. While some studies (3, 6) have found a positive impact, others have found detrimental influences (1, 2, 5, 7). One factor which appears to bear heavily on these differences is whether the IKR gives helpful cues which assist students on subsequent questions. If the IKR provides such cueing in formation, then it would enhance test scores by providing answers, but any motivational effect would be masked. A second factor which could explain differences in the liter ature is whether the IKR merely duplicates knowledge of progress which the students already intrinsically have (5). If the test items were either very easy or extremely diffi cult, then IKR would prove nearly useless since the students would know (without being told) that they were getting items right or resorting to guessing. Locke and his associates (4) have focused on a third factor which may explain the inconsistent findings for IKR. They state that the central issue regarding the influ ence of IKR is goal setting. A subject who is given IKR will set goals commensurate with that information, and his per formance will be influenced by it. A student who is in formed that he is getting most questions right will set high goals and perform accordingly. A factorial study which carefully controls for cueing of subsequent answers, which assesses intrinsic IKR, and which measures goal setting provides the most direct measure of the impact of these two motivational factors. There were a variety of reasons for carrying out the present study. The first was to see whether the influence of IKR found with a college population (5) would also exist with junior high students, and if so whether the effect would be different for boys and girls. The research attempted to determine whether goal setting instructions would influence scores on an academic test. The final ob jective was to assess whether the IKR was actually func tional or merely descriptive, adding little to the students' intrinsic idea of how well they are doing.