Students generally attempted fewer items under ego-involving than task-involving feedback, but among praised students the gap was not significant¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Ego-involving feedback lowered trials relative to task-involving feedback (b = −1.5, t = −5.27, p <.001). → Cheng-Hong Liu 2026 q3 i? Among students receiving person praise, trials did not differ between feedback conditions (b = −0.2, t = −0.5, p =.618). → Cheng-Hong Liu 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Cheng-Hong Liu 2026¶

Cheng-Hong Liu, Xian-Rui Yin. (2026). Effects of person praise on students' motivation and performance under ego-involving and task-involving feedback conditions. Instructional Science (2026) 54:34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-026-09789-0

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Main effect from the OLS regression in the 146-participant experiment: ego-involving feedback predicted fewer attempted items ("b = −1.5, t = −5.27, p <.001"), model R² = 0.27 for the motivation outcome.

"participants under the ego-involving feedback condition attempted to resolve fewer items relative to those under the task-involving feedback condition, b = −1.5, t = −5.27, p <.001."

Cheng-Hong Liu 2026 (2)¶

Cheng-Hong Liu, Xian-Rui Yin. (2026). Effects of person praise on students' motivation and performance under ego-involving and task-involving feedback conditions. Instructional Science (2026) 54:34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-026-09789-0

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Simple slopes in the same regression showed a feedback-manner gap without praise (b = −2.78, t = −6.96, p <.001) and no significant difference among praised students (b = −0.2, t = −0.5, p =.618); a nonsignificant difference does not show the gap is zero. The narrowing came mostly from praise lowering attempts under task-involving feedback (b = −1.8, t = −4.47, p <.001); under ego-involving feedback praise was associated with only a marginal, nonsignificant increase in attempts (b = 0.78, t = 1.97, p =.051).

"for participants who did not receive person praise, those under the ego-involving feedback condition answered fewer items relative to those under the task-involving feedback condition, b = −2.78, t = −6.96, p <.001."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Person praise and feedback manner significantly interact on task motivation, such that praise raises trials under ego-involving feedback and lowers them under task-involving feedback — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Under task-involving feedback, pre-task person praise reduces motivation and indirectly lowers task performance; under ego-involving feedback it indirectly raises performance — related
• Person praise raises state self-esteem (d = 0.40), and under task-involving feedback higher state self-esteem is negatively related to motivation, supporting a distraction mechanism only in the low-threat condition — related
• Praise for intelligence, rather than for effort, after success undermines children's motivation and performance after a later failure — related