Experimenter Effects on Children's Motor Performance

In order to evaluate the effects of the amount of previous experimenter-subject contact on two motor tasks, male and female subjects (N=75, aged 3-5 yr.) were assigned to one of five treatment conditions (zero, one, three, or five contact periods, or tested by the teacher). The design was counterbalanced so that the effects of experimenter sex could be determined. Experimenter effects were not shown in these motor performances, and neither the amount of previous experimenter-subject contact nor the subject's sex produced differences in motor performance. This result might be due to the type of motor task used as contrasted to the type of cognitive task in which experimenter effects are often noted.