The Effects of Gender, Expectations of Success and Social Comparison on Children's Performance on a Computer‐based Task

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Abstract
The study examined the effects of gender, expectations of success and social comparison on children's performance on a computer‐based task. The children (32 boys and 30 girls) were aged between 10 and 11 and were randomly allocated to either a high‐expectation group or a low‐expectation group and to one of two conditions either an individual condition or a social comparison condition. Children worked on their own in the individual condition. In the social comparison condition, they worked in the presence of three same‐sex peers, who were working on comparable problems. The presence of comparable others facilitated the performance of girls who had high expectations of success, but was detrimental to the performance of girls with low expectations of success. The presence of comparable others had the opposite effect for boys. The implications of these findings for the use of computers in schools are discussed.