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Pattern of Performance and Attributions of Ability and Gender

Knox College

In a single experiment, 92 subjects corrected a multiple choice test in which a phantom stimulus person (SP) correctly answered 15 out of3O questions in either a descending or ascending pattern of success. Subjects were then asked to make judgments concerning the person's performance, intelligence, and gender. Contrary to expectations, the lack of cues about the person and nature of the test problems enhanced rather than diminished the primacy effect for ability attribution found by earlier investigators. The performer with the descending success rate was perceived as having correctly solved more problems, as being more intelligent, and was expected to perform better on future problems. Subjects exposed to the descending pattern of success were also significantly more willing to attribute a particular sex to the stimulus person. The discussion of the results centered around the relative importance of person cues for confidence in making ability attributions, as well as possible differences in the subjective importance of the information conveyed by ascending and descending patterns of success.

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