Levels of Aspiration of High- and Low-Skilled Boys

Abstract

The stated levels of aspirations (L/A's) of high-skilled and low-skilled boys were examined to determine if they differed under prearranged conditions of failure in a simple motor task. Subjects were selected on the basis of their performances on a modified form of the Iowa Brace test. The motor task consisted of moving small blocks from one board to another. Preceding each of three trials, the subjct stated how many blocks he reasonably thought he could move in the succeeding 30-second trial. After a universal performance level was established, failure was induced by systematically stopping the subject before he attained his L/A. A 2×3 factorial design with repeated measures on the second-factor was employed. Analysis of variance indicated that the main effects of skill level and trials were significant at the .05 level. Analysis of simple effects indicated that the L/A's of the high- and low-skilled groups differed significantly only on the third trial (p = .05) and that failure had a significant effect on both groups (p = .10). High-skilled subjects expressed higher L/A's than did low-skilled subjects. All subjects' L/A's lowered significantly over trials. The L/A's of the high-skilled group as compared to the low-skilled group over the three trials did not indicate differential responses.