Anchored in praise? Potential manifestation of the anchoring bias in feedback reception

“Cognitive scientists have identified a number of biases (for reviews see Azzopardi, 2021; Pohl, 2016; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) with the anchoring bias being among one of the most widely recognised (Furnham & Boo, 2011).”

“Data transformation was performed using the tidyverse package (Wickham et al., 2019) and the path model was analysed using the lavaan package (Rosseel, 2012).”

“In contrast, praise relating to the task itself may not be effective as it does not identify clear learning guidance (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; see also Brummelman, 2020 for review).”

“Another finding that demands explanation is that motivation exhibited no influence on the change in performance, which goes counter to theory and empirical evidence (Cerasoli et al., 2014; Locke & Latham, 2002).”

“The experimental grouping variable was coded into two dummy variables in which the control group was used as the reference group (Hayes & Preacher, 2013).”

“ARTICLE HISTORY Received 5 August 2022 Accepted 3 February 2023 KEYWORDS Feedback; cognitive biases; praise; writing task; anchoring There is a consensus in the field that feedback can greatly benefit students’ performance and learning (Hattie, 2012; Lipnevich & Smith, 2018).”

“Another finding that demands explanation is that motivation exhibited no influence on the change in performance, which goes counter to theory and empirical evidence (Cerasoli et al., 2014; Locke & Latham, 2002).”

“There is an inherent variation in praise across contexts and instructional scenarios, and researchers have offered taxonomies and described differences in praise’s foci (see Brummelman, 2020; Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“Cognitive scientists have identified a number of biases (for reviews see Azzopardi, 2021; Pohl, 2016; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) with the anchoring bias being among one of the most widely recognised (Furnham & Boo, 2011).”

“Yet, relative to the wealth of research on giving feedback, the field has focused considerably less on the processes involved in effective feedback uptake (Lipnevich et al., 2021; Winstone et al., 2017).”

“Although criticised (Evans & Stanovich, 2013; Kruglanski & Gigerenzer, 2011), dualprocessing or dual-system theories are typically used to explain the mechanism of biases (Kahneman, 2013; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974).”

“For example, despite its positive effects on emotions, praise has previously been shown to reduce students’ motivation as well as their academic self-concepts (Brummelman et al., 2014, 2016; Cassidy et al., 2003; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002; Zarrinabadi & Rahimi, 2021).”

“Based on the selective accessibility model, the anchoring bias is explained by more easily accessible information (Chapman & Johnson, 1999; Strack & Mussweiler, 2014), which may bias subsequent decision-making.”

“However, several studies demonstrated that students’ use of feedback can be rather limited (e.g., Handley et al., 2011; Jonsson, 2012; Price et al., 2016).”

“Researchers suggested that the underlying mechanisms for anchoring may originate in a complex web of cognitive processes, such as memory retrieval, language understanding, social cognition, and creativity (Lieder et al., 2017).”

“These results are somewhat surprising as earlier studies have shown that students can use comments to improve work (see Lipnevich & Smith, 2009a, 2009b).”

“However, several studies demonstrated that students’ use of feedback can be rather limited (e.g., Handley et al., 2011; Jonsson, 2012; Price et al., 2016).”

“Cognitive scientists have identified a number of biases (for reviews see Azzopardi, 2021; Pohl, 2016; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) with the anchoring bias being among one of the most widely recognised (Furnham & Boo, 2011).”

“Individual differences like cognitive reflection and cognitive ability seem to have only a minor influence on the susceptibility to the anchoring bias (Bergman et al., 2010; Stanovich & West, 2008; Teovanović, 2019; Welsh et al., 2014).”

“These results are somewhat surprising as earlier studies have shown that students can use comments to improve work (see Lipnevich & Smith, 2009a, 2009b).”

“Within the most recent model of anchoring, the attitudinal perspective model, anchors are conceptualised as directly or indirectly influencing information processing (Turner & Schley, 2016; Wegener et al., 2001, 2010).”

“complexity of this task (Hattie, 2012; Wiliam, 2018), it is important to understand the process underlying students’ processing of feedback and what influences it.”

“One of the most common types of feedback that students receive across instructional settings is praise (Floress et al., 2017; Jenkins et al., 2015; Royer et al., 2019).”

“As a consequence, the anchoring bias can occur even when engaging in elaborative System 2 processing as demonstrated in previous studies (Blankenship et al., 2008; Wegener et al., 2010).”

“It is safe to assume that the manner in which feedback is presented elicits biases (Lipnevich & Smith, 2022).”

“For example, despite its positive effects on emotions, praise has previously been shown to reduce students’ motivation as well as their academic self-concepts (Brummelman et al., 2014, 2016; Cassidy et al., 2003; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002; Zarrinabadi & Rahimi, 2021).”

“Research on overconfidence bias shows that students from developing countries are more likely to exhibit higher levels of overconfidence bias (Rachmatullah & Ha, 2019; Stankov & Lee, 2014), leading to reduced decision-making and assessment of their own decisions.”

“Within the most recent model of anchoring, the attitudinal perspective model, anchors are conceptualised as directly or indirectly influencing information processing (Turner & Schley, 2016; Wegener et al., 2001, 2010).”

“For example, despite its positive effects on emotions, praise has previously been shown to reduce students’ motivation as well as their academic self-concepts (Brummelman et al., 2014, 2016; Cassidy et al., 2003; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002; Zarrinabadi & Rahimi, 2021).”

“One of the most common types of feedback that students receive across instructional settings is praise (Floress et al., 2017; Jenkins et al., 2015; Royer et al., 2019).”

“This approach is defensible for affective variables, but is certainly not without problems (Lipnevich et al., 2021).”

“Most research has focused on younger students (Brummelman et al., 2016; Möller, 2005), with few studies conducted in the higher education context (for second language learning at the university level see Zarrinabadi & Rahimi, 2021).”

“It is possible that presenting praise at the end of a unit may be more desirable as there is evidence that not all praise is bad (for a meta-analysis see Zoder-Martell et al., 2019).”

“In contrast, praise relating to the task itself may not be effective as it does not identify clear learning guidance (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; see also Brummelman, 2020 for review).”

“Individual differences like cognitive reflection and cognitive ability seem to have only a minor influence on the susceptibility to the anchoring bias (Bergman et al., 2010; Stanovich & West, 2008; Teovanović, 2019; Welsh et al., 2014).”

“Research on overconfidence bias shows that students from developing countries are more likely to exhibit higher levels of overconfidence bias (Rachmatullah & Ha, 2019; Stankov & Lee, 2014), leading to reduced decision-making and assessment of their own decisions.”

“This approach is defensible for affective variables, but is certainly not without problems (Lipnevich et al., 2021).”

“Within the most recent model of anchoring, the attitudinal perspective model, anchors are conceptualised as directly or indirectly influencing information processing (Turner & Schley, 2016; Wegener et al., 2001, 2010).”

“Individual differences like cognitive reflection and cognitive ability seem to have only a minor influence on the susceptibility to the anchoring bias (Bergman et al., 2010; Stanovich & West, 2008; Teovanović, 2019; Welsh et al., 2014).”

“the impact of the anchoring effect in students’ processing of feedback and its consequences (Joughin et al., 2018).”

“…Eastern Europe & Central Asia (EECA) region, of which Belarus is a member, traditional teaching practices and teacher-centred instruction, such as class lectures, are more common than personalised adaptive instruction in comparison to OECD countries (OECD/ UNICEF, 2021; Lugovtsova et al., 2012).”

“The student participants are from Belarus, and a study by Antas-Jaszczuk and Roguska (2019) on university students’ attitudes towards education in eastern Europe revealed that 62.2% of the surveyed students from Belarus named ‘achieving high academic results’ as the primary action to fulfill their…”

“However, research suggests that the feed-back sandwich may weaken the effectiveness of constructive feedback by diluting its clarity and making it seem less sincere or actionable [29].”

“This could also relate to the negative consequences of praise (e.g. Kluger & DeNisi, 1996; Lipnevich et al., 2023; Meyer, 1992): Some students who receive a lot of praise might become more afraid of making mistakes and, thus, avoid challenges (reflecting a fear of failure; e.g. Brummelman & Dweck…”

“While most peer feedback studies emphasize the providing peer feedback process, researchers have recently highlighted students’ implementation (also known as acting upon) of peer feed-back (e.g. Fong et al. 2021; Su and Huang 2022; Lipnevich et al. 2023).”

“…our understanding to the behavioral theory of decision-making, as prior research employing the behavioral approach has mostly recruited students (Lipnevich et al., 2023; Steiger & Kuhberger, 2018; Valdez et al., 2018; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974), rather than expert decision makers (i.e.,…”

“Similarly, the study by Lipnevich et al. (2023) suggested that positive feedback could trigger anchoring bias, which in turn affects how the feedback is processed and implemented by the recipient.”

“At the same time, positive feedback was also identified as less constructive and less implementable in many research studies conducted in university classrooms (e.g., Fong et al., 2021; Lipnevich et al., 2023).”