How Knowledge of Results and Goal Setting Function during Academic Tests

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 subjects 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.