ICOM5-D51 Memory of a Contrived Success Promoted Scholastic Achievement in Japanese Junior High Students Akitoshi Uchida & Kazuo Mori Togakushi Junior High School Tokyo University of. Nagano, Japan Agriculture and Technology A presentation subterfuge allowed four to six Japanese 7 th grade students from each class at their junior high school to view easier anagram tasks than those presented to their classmates. Two series of anagram tasks were projected simultaneously on the same screen, however, each of two groups of students, all wearing polarized sunglasses, observed only one series, unaware of the other series. The target students given easier tasks, 78 in total, performed significantly better than their classmates who served as the control group (227 in total). The results showed that, although contrived, their success in the tasks significantly raised the self-efficacy estimation of the target students. Moreover, the students’ successful experience evidently promoted their scholastic achievement overall.

LCD projector Mori and Uchida (2009) Twenty-four junior high school students with academic achievement in the percentiles were given easier anagram tasks while their 183 classmates were given more difficult ones by means of a presentation trick using polarizing filters (Mori, 2007). The students’ successful performance and resultant social approval significantly promoted their self-efficacy for the anagram tasks. The elevated self-efficacy persisted as long as one year after the anagram task success. Anagram Tasks Easy Task Performers Difficult Task Performers 2

Mori and Uchida (2009) Changes in Scholastic Achievement after Success. 43 Over two-thirds of the Easy Task Performers (17/24) eventually raised their scholastic achievement level. However, this was not fully proven statistically because there might be a regression effect. N of students who raised their test scores were 17/24 (p =.032, by a direct calculation of probability). N of students who raised their test scores were 17/24 (p =.032, by a direct calculation of probability). Anagram Tasks Achievement scores (Z scores)

Research Question Whether a contrived success may eventually influence scholastic achievement by promoting self-efficacy will be re-examined with a larger sample of target students including those in the percentiles as well as those in the percentiles. 4

Method: Participants A total of 617 students participated. The easy-task performers were chosen from the percentiles. The difficult-task performers in the same percentiles served as the control group. High achievers Low achievers Target Students: Easy-task condition students (n = 78) Control Students: Difficult-task condition students of the percentiles (n = 227) U100 U75 U50 U25 5

Method: Experimental Procedure ・ The experimental procedure was the same as Mori & Uchida (2009). ・ Each task was presented for 10 seconds with 5 sec intervals. ・ Ten common tasks were followed by another ten common tasks with ten critical tasks randomly mixed in among them. ・ Lastly, only the well-performing students were asked to raise their hands to indicate their number of correct answers. General instructions Ten common tasks and ten critical tasks were randomly presented. Praise for those who did well on the tasks. 6

・５＝ Very well ・４＝ Well ・３＝ Neutral -- Average ・２＝ Poorly ・１＝ Very poorly Method: Self-Efficacy Ratings Participants predicted their own success on a 5-point scale in answer to the same question as in Mori & Uchida (2009): “How well will you perform in the word reconstruction game?” 7 Method: The Anagram Tasks Thirty tasks with five hiragana letters were given. Twenty tasks were common for the two conditions. Ten tasks were prepared with two levels of difficulty. STIPUD (Easy task) PSITDU (Difficult task) Equivalent examples in English

Results: Number of Tasks Solved ８ The target students performed well above their counterparts in the anagram tasks.

Success in the anagram tasks promoted self-efficacy as found in Mori & Uchida (2009). Results: Change in Self-efficacy ９

Five months later χ 2 (1) = 6.994, p <.01 Two months later χ 2 (1) = 3.546,.05 < p <.10 Results: Change in Scholastic Achievement 10 UpDown Targets3224 Controls4563 UpDown Targets3521 Controls4464 The leading group effect (Mori & Uchida, 2011) More students in the Target condition raised their scholastic achievement than in the Control group. Achievement scores (Z scores)

11 Conclusions Memory of their success in the anagram tasks significantly raised the self-efficacy of the target students. Moreover, their successful experience eventually raised scholastic achievement in the majority of the target students.

References Mori, K. (2007). Projecting two words with one machine: A method for presenting two different visual stimuli using just one projector without viewers’ noticing the duality. Behavior Research Methods, 39, Mori, K. & Uchida, A. (2009). Can Contrived Success Affect the Self- Efficacy among Junior High School Students? Research in Education, 82, Mori, K. & Uchida, A. (2011). The leading group effect: Illusionary declines in scholastic standard scores of mid-range Japanese junior high school pupils. To appear in Research in Education. Acknowledgments This research was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (Grant No and ) to KM. We obtained the informed consent of the principal and vice-principal of the junior high school before conducting this experimental research. We also explained the presentation trick directly to the participants one month after the anagram tasks. We wish to express our thanks to the students and teachers who participated in and supported this research project. The experiments were carried out by students of Shinshu University, Kazue Ohta, Kosuke Goto, and Yu Sato, for their capstone theses. We are indebted to Rebecca Ann Marck for her kind help in preparation of the poster slides. 12