The effect of goal setting and knowledge of results on the performance of a motor task.

摘要

Goal setting can be an effective motivational tool for improved performance. Unfortunately, in motor performance and sport, the effects have usually been interpreted intuitively and not tested empirically. Developed primarily in management settings, it remains to be seen if goal setting principles can be successfully applied to sport without some modification. Experiments 1 and 2 were conducted for two primary purposes: (a) to test the effectiveness of goal setting technique using a motor task, and (b) to determine the effect on performance of providing knowledge of past and/or present results (KR). In Experiment 1, subjects ({dollar}n{dollar} = 80 males, 77 females) performed a 20 second trial on a bicycle ergometer that displayed the number of flywheel revolutions on a monitor in front of them. They were then assigned to 1 of 5 goal difficulty conditions representing percentages of their score on the first trial. Following a 4 minute recovery period, a second 20 second trial was performed. When combined into groups classified as easy, difficult, or impossible, analysis supported the goal difficulty hypothesis for males but not for females. Gender differences were also found for goal acceptance, value and expectancy. In Experiment 2, the same task was used by 216 male subjects. Knowledge of results was given for both trials or for either Trial 1 or Trial 2. Three levels of goal difficulty were used: 0%, 10%, and no goal. The data were analyzed by a series of nine planned directional contrasts. The analysis for the goal and KR conditions that replicated those of Experiment 1 produced similar results. Specific difficult goals produced better performance than did the easy goals or no goal at all. Neither goals nor KR improved performance by themselves. However, knowledge of results, when available for only Trial 1 or Trial 2, appeared to influence performance sufficiently to produce results which were inconsistent with the principles of goal setting. The relationships among expectancy, value, acceptance, and performance generally failed to support the predictions of goal setting technique. Caution was advised in interpreting the results of correlations made across all experimental treatment conditions.