The Linear Relationship Between the Difficulty Level Connoted by a Primed Goal and Task Performance

Abstract

A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine whether the linear relationship between goal difficulty and performance exists in the domain of subconscious goals. Specifically, the effect of primed goals that connote three levels of difficulty on subsequent performance was examined. Participants (n=122) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions where they were either primed with a photograph of a person lifting 20 pounds (easy goal), 200 pounds (moderately difficult goal), 400 pounds (difficult goal), or were not primed (control condition). Participants were asked to press as hard as they could on a digital weight scale. Participants who were primed with the difficult goal of a photograph of a person lifting 400 pounds pressed significantly harder on the scale than those who were primed with the easy goal of a photograph of a person lifting 20 pounds, the moderate goal of 200 pounds, and those who were not primed. The results of this study are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical significance.