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Prior task failure as a determinant of biofeedback and cognitive task performance

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Abstract

In a study of the effects of controllability of outcomes upon behavior in a biofeedback context, 40 college students were assigned to four groups differing in pretreatment: (1) a success-failure group, given false feedback in a fictitious blood-vessel control task for two sessions designed to convey success followed by two sessions of failure feedback; (2) a failure-failure group, given false failure feedback throughout pretreatment; (3) a contingent failure group, receiving actual feedback in a temperature biofeedback task with criteria that assured failure throughout pretreatment; and (4) a control group, given no specific task during this phase. In a subsequent phase, all subjects received actual frontal (forehead) electromyographic (EMG) response training with biofeedback. In analyses of the results, during EMG training, the contingent failure group attained lower levels than the other three groups. By contrast, on a cognitive (anagram) task, interpolated between pretreatment and EMG training, the contingent failure group demonstrated relatively poorer performance than the other groups. The results are discussed in terms of reactance and learned helplessness theories of perceived loss of control in this context.

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Author notes

  1. Jeffrey E. Cassisi

    Present address: the University of Florida, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii, 2430 Campus Road, 96822, Honolulu, Hawaii

    John G. Carlson & Jeffrey E. Cassisi

Authors
  1. John G. Carlson
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  2. Jeffrey E. Cassisi
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Additional information

Some of the data reported here were included in a thesis submitted by the second author in partial fulfillment of requirements for the master's degree in psychology, University of Hawaii, 1981. The entire paper was the basis for a presentation at the annual meeting of the Biofeedback Society of America, Albuquerque, 1984.

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Carlson, J.G., Cassisi, J.E. Prior task failure as a determinant of biofeedback and cognitive task performance. Motiv Emot 9, 331–343 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992204

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