Date of Award

12-2005

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Alyce M. Dickinson

Second Advisor

Dr. Jack Michael

Third Advisor

Dr. Bradley Huitema

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

The effects of performance feedback when individuals received fixed or individual incentive pay were examined. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used with approximately 30 college students in each group. Participants attended six experimental sessions. They entered the cash value of simulated bank checks presented on a computer screen. Monetary incentives increased the number of correctly completed checks (p = .000); however feedback had no effect (p = .825). Time spent working and rate of performance correlated strongly with the number of checks completed correctly, suggesting that both influenced the checks completed correctly. The results suggest that incentives increase performance. They further suggest that feedback is unlikely to affect performance when it is provided without evaluation.

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