On the Remote Associates Test (RAT) as an Alternative to Illusory Performance Feedback: A Methodological Note

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is presented as a viable alternative to tasks involving illusory feedback and heavy deception that are typically used to manipulate performance in psychological research. Data from three studies are offered to support the contention that by manipulating the difficulty of RAT items, subjects can be given performance feedback which is veridical with their actual performance, thus providing a powerful performance manipulation while minimizing deception. In all studies, subjects were given either ten easy (success condition), ten hard (failure condition), or five easy and five hard (control condition) RAT items. For performance feedback, subjects in the success and failure conditions were simply told how many items they had answered correctly. Control condition subjects were given no evaluative feedback. The re, suits were essentially the same in all three studies. There was little or no overlap in subjects' performance across the three feedback conditions. Within conditions, ...