Effect of experimental success and failure on the situational expectancy of EMR and nonretarded children.

The effect of differing histories of success and experimentally induced and failure on the generalized and situational expectancy of EMR and nonretarded children was studied. Three samples of 16 children each served as subjects. The EMR sample was equated with one sample of nonretarded children on the basis of CA and another sample of nonretarded subjects on the basis of MA. Subjects were asked to indicate how well they thought they would do on an experimental task (verbal estimate) and to predict how many out of 8 trials on which they would be successful. Then they were exposed either to experimentally induced success or failure. Subjects were then asked to give a verbal estimate and numerical prediction for a subsequent block of trials. Results failed to support the role of history of success on expectancy; however, the experimentally induced success and failure had a significant effect on both verbal estimates and numerical predictions independent of groups. The results were discussed in terms of social-learning theory, and certain methodological problems in this line of research were noted.