[Effects of outcome and ability information on children's effort judgements]

The purpose of this study was to investigate preschool and grade-school children's effort judgments of fictional figures in children's story under two conditions. In one condition, the information of performance outcomes of fictional figures was given. And in the other condition, the information of performance outcomes plus ability of fictional figures was given. In the outcome information condition, younger children's (preschool and second-grade children) effort judgments were the same as elder children's (fourth- and sixth-grade children) ones. Both younger and elder children judged the effort in success to be higher than that in failure. In the outcome plus ability information condition, however, younger children's effort judgments differed from elder children's ones. Elder children judged the high-ability figure's effort to be lower than the low-ability figure's one, while younger children's effort judgments of the high-ability and the low-ability figures were the same.