Spontaneous cognitions following academic test results

Attribution research is usually based on reactive attributions demanded by the instructions themselves. However examining spontaneous verbal reports ( B. Weiner, 1985) avoids reduction to causal cognitions. In the present stud y, the authors used a multithematic approach focusing on causal, evaluative , and finalistic cognitions (see A. Abele, 1985; P.T. Wong & B. Weiner, 198 1). In Experiment 1, spontaneous verbalizations by university students (N = 35) Immediately after they had received their exam results in a statistics course were obtained. The students who performed better than they had expe cted tended to produce dominantly evaluative thoughts, The students who rec eived worse results than they had expected showed an increase in causal rea soning. In Experiment 2, junior high school students (N = 96) who were unce rtain of their expected grades In a math exam were more likely to spontaneo usly write down causal attributions following failure and to verbalize eval uative cognitions after success, whereas the students who were more certain of their expected grades produced slightly fewer causal attributions follo wing failure.