RELATION OF TASK-DIFFICULTY TO PERSISTENCE

The present study was a replication and expansion of Eisenberger's 199 2 model of learned industriousness which states that task persistence is determined by one's prior history with effort and reinforcement on previous tasks. He predicted a linear relationship between these facto rs. College students (32 women and 22 men) participated in this study which examined the relationship among seven levels of difficulty on a digit-array task and persistence on an unsolvable anagram task. Analys is indicated a quadratic relationship; at intermediate levels of diffi culty and reinforcement, persistence was highest, and at low and high levels of difficulty and reinforcement, persistence declined. We attri bute these findings to the effects of both learned industriousness and learned helplessness.