Heider’s suggestion that Performance = Ability x Motivation has been empirically

confirmed by Anderson and Butzin as well as by Kun, Parsons, and Ruble. This
multiplying process failed to appear in a series of three experiments conducted by Singh,
Gupta, and Dalal. Contrary to the linear fan shape in the Ability x Motivation data as
predicted by the multiplying rule, the three experiments evinced clear parallelism. Results
from all the three experiments were in accord with the implications of the constant –
weight averaging rule. The authors, therefore, suggested that the integration rules
underlying attributed scholastic performance are highly culture-specific.
The chief objective of the present research was to analyze developmental trends in
attribution of scholastic performance, using Norman Anderson’s theory of information
integration. Subjects, varying in age form 6-19 years, predicted scholastic performance of
some hypothetical students who were constructed from a 3 x 3, Ability x Effort design
and from a 3 x 3 x 3, Previous Performance x Ability x Effort design. Also, there were
some hypothetical persons described with respect to just their ability or effort.
Analyses of the data of the Ability x Effort design disclosed two developmental trends.
First, children (6-13 years) followed a nonadditive rule: adults followed an additive rule.
Examination of the position of single-cue, effort curve in the family of other three curves
further indicated that an adding-type rule develops out of an averaging rule. Second,
perceived importance of ability and effort cues as determinants of performance changed
over age. Children of 6-7 years and adults considered ability as a more important
determinant than effort, while children of 8-13 years considered ability and effort as
equally important.
Results from the Previous Performance x Ability x effort design had two important
features. First, clear parallelism in the coordination of ability and effort information was
obtained only at the adult level. The single-cue, effort curve clearly crossed over some
row curves of each developmental group, suggesting that the adding-type result in the 2-
cue design was perhaps because of the averaging of an assumed value for the missing
information. Second, there was a developmental trend in the interpretation of information
available about previous performance. Children of 6-9 years and adults associated
previous performance with effort, whereas children of 10-13 years associated it with
ability. Because of the availability of the previous performance information, subjects of
all the development levels perceived ability as more important determinant of
performance than effort.
Results from the 2- and 3- cue designs indicate that achievement judgments really follow
an averaging rule in India, as Singh et al. suggest perhaps attribution of scholastic
performance abbeys a multiple sufficient schema. This finding of cultural difference in
achievement judgments is important, for it shows that the methods of information
integration theory can serve as a powerful tool in cross-cultural research.
In Piagetian theory, preoperational children are regarded as centerers. It is held that they
pay attention to only the most salient aspect of the stimulus, and ignore the others.
Results from single-subject analyses showed that the problem of centration is not as
serious as the Piagetians believe. Only 4 of the 24 preoperational children were real
centerers: They responded to just one cue of the stimulus person in both 2- and 3-cue
designs. Other children used two or more cues very efficiently. Further analyses
suggested that decentration itself is a continuous process. The all-or-none concept of
centration may thus be altogether abandoned.
The status of developmental psychology in India is far from satisfactory. No systematic
study of child development has been undertaken; child development research ahs not
received proper attention. One reason for this is perhaps the lack of appropriate method to
study children’s cognition. The results reported here suggest that children’s cognition.
The results reported here suggest that children’s social perception and cognition can be
studied in a precise manner. The rating scaled method, individual child analyses, and
factorial designs constitute a powerful analytic approach to the study of multiple
causation. The author thus hopes that the present work will call attention of child
psychologists in India to the power of the integration theoretical analyses of development
of social perception and cognition.