Resumen de Compared to what? Efects of social and temporal comparison standards of feedback in an e‑learning context
Marc P. Janson, Jan Siebert, Oliver Dickhäuser
Performance evaluation is based on comparison standards. Results can either be contrasted to former results (temporal comparison) or results of others (social comparison).
Existing literature analyzed potential efects of teachers’ stable preferences for comparison standards on students’ learning outcomes. The present experiments investigated efects of learners’ own preferences for comparison standards on learning persistence and performance. Based on research and fndings on person-environment-ft, we postulated a ft hypothesis for learners’ preferences for comparison standards and framed feedback on learning persistence and performance. We tested our hypotheses in two separate experiments (N=203 and N=132) using diferent manipulations of framed feedback (temporal vs. social) in an e-learning environment, thus establishing high ecological validity and allowing objective data to be collected. We found frst evidence for benefcial efects of receiving framed feedback towards own preferences on learning persistence and performance in our experiments. We tested fuency as a possible underlying psychological mechanism in our second experiment and observed a larger ft efect on learning persistence under disfuency. The results are discussed regarding a new theoretical perspective on the concept of preferences for comparison standards as well as opportunities for adaptive e-learning.
