The Effects of Combined Evaluative and Objective Feedback On Performance

Date of Award

12-2018

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Alyce M. Dickinson

Second Advisor

Dr. Douglas A. Johnson

Third Advisor

Dr. Bradley E. Huitema

Keywords

Feedback, incentives, fixed pay, objective feedback, evaluative feedback

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Abstract Only

Restricted to Campus until

12-2028

Abstract

This study examined whether a combined objective and evaluative feedback procedure would enhance the effectiveness of incentive pay. There were four experimental conditions: (a) fixed pay without feedback, (b) fixed pay with feedback, (c) individual monetary incentive pay without feedback, and (d) individual monetary incentive pay with feedback. Participants were 92 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. Participants attended a covariate session and five experimental sessions, which were 45 minutes each. The experimental task was a computerized medical data entry task and the primary dependent variable was the average number of correctly completed medical records per session. The results were analyzed using a two-factor ANCOVA. Feedback significantly increased performance; however, incentive pay did not increase performance in comparison to fixed pay. Feedback enhanced performance by an average of 22%. These results are consistent with earlier research that has demonstrated the effectiveness of feedback procedures that contain both objective and evaluative components. The results extend earlier research by confirming that this type of feedback increases the performance of paid, as well as unpaid, participants. Because there was no statistically significant pay effect, however, the results are ambiguous with respect to whether this type of feedback procedure enhances incentivized performance.

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