Previous research has suggested the existence of a primacy effect in the attribution of ability. To test if the primacy effect occurs in situations where specific cues about the person and nature of the test materials are lacking or greatly reduced, college students corrected a multiple-choice test in which a phantom stimulus person correctly…

Undergraduate subjects were given an opportunity to cheat undetected on puzzle problems. The hypotheses were confirmed that more cheating occurred under ability attribution conditions than under luck attribution conditions; this effect of performance attribution was greater among self-aware subjects than among non-self-aware subjects. (Author/MH)

This research explored cognitive-motivational patterns of learning-disabled and nondisabled adolescents by employing the theoretical model of C. S. Dweck, which posits that a "learning goal" orients students toward the development of competence, whereas a "performance goal" orients students toward the documentation of competence, and that these…