The Effects of Personal Responsibility and Task Interruption on the Private Speech of Preschoolers

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Abstract
The effects of personal responsibility for failure, task interruption, and success on private speech were assessed. Sixty children (ages 4.0 to 5.2), divided into high and average mental-age (MA) groups, were asked to perform a cognitive task under one of three conditions: personal failure (due to the child’s inadequate performance), task interruption (due to faulty materials), or success (task completion). Both quantity and quality of private speech were higher in the personal-failure condition than the other conditions. Task-oriented behavior was also higher in the personal-failure condition. As predicted, high MA children had higher quantity and quality of private speech than average MA children. There was a weak tendency for high MA children to respond to personal failure more than average MA children.

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