The impact of a minimal social comparison feedback in writing was investigated in two experiments. During the first part of each experiment, the participants wrote down the names of pictures as quickly as possible. Before the second part, half of them were given either positive (Experiment 1) or negative (Experiment 2) feedback on their naming speed. The feedback was a virtual score indicating to the participants that they were among the fastest or the slowest writers. In both experiments, the control
condition was a message indicating that the continuation of the experiment was being loaded. All the participants then wrote down the names from a different set of pictures. The frequency of the picture names was manipulated. Both types of feedback increased naming speed compared to the no feedback condition but did not alter the size of the frequency effects. We suggest that lexical access in written production is not altered by feedback whereas the criterion which initializes writing is.
Impact of a minimal social comparison feedback in written picture naming
