Compares second-, fifth- and eighth-graders' reasoning about their relative ability and that of another child (who applied more or less effort) with their reasoning about the relative ability of two others (who differed in effort). Responses to specific questions may be more sensitive to situationally induced motivational influences than responses…

Achievement behavior is defined as behavior directed at demonstrating high ability. Ability is conceived as relative to one's own past performance, or relative to that of others. Conditions under which these conceptions of ability function as individual's goals and the nature of subjective experience in each case are specified. (Author/BW)

Discussed are research methods used to measure developmental changes in children's reasoning about ability. While adults generally differentiate ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty as causes for success and failure, children progressively think that effort or outcome is ability (level 1), that effort is the cause of performance outcomes…

Selected cognitive developments presumed to mediate the development of achievement motivation are described. Age trends for four causal schemes involving the concepts of effort and ability from 5 to 13 years of age are presented. Developments related to ability, task difficulty, and incentive value are also described. (Author/JMB)

Deals with (1) developmental changes in children's concepts of difficulty and ability and (2) individual differences within different developmental levels. Three levels of understanding of ability and difficulty are proposed, and cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence of progressive development through the stages is presented. (Author/RH)

Five studies were conducted to determine if college students employ different conceptions of ability in self-referenced (task-involving) and interpersonally competitive (ego-involving) situations. Competence and positive affects were associated with higher effort in task-involving situations but negatively associated with higher effort in…

Beliefs about causes of success in school and sports were related in a logical fashion to personal goals for 207 high school students. Satisfaction and boredom in the classroom were primarily predicted by personal goal orientations. In sports, satisfaction and boredom were more intimately linked to perceptions of ability. (SLD)

Adolescents' developing sense of competence is based on two domains, ability and intelligence. Intelligence testing generally presumes a conception of ability as current capacity that limits the extent to which effort can improve performance. Conceptions of intelligence, and other skills, involve implications about the nature of different forms of…