W HAT IS the eflFect of frustratimi on the quality, or general adequacy, of ongoing performance"* At times frustration seems to lead to better, more effective performance, at other times it seems to produce disorganization and less effective performance Separate demonstration of these two qqwsite effects is to be found m the experimental literature Some attention has been given, as by Barker (2), to a theoretical solution of the problem of how such diverse effects may rise from frustraticm, but little empincal research has been directed at the problem.In previous publications (4, 5), we have suggested, in effect, that this problem may be |artly solved by the following proposition Frustration will produce a decrease %n the qucitty of ongoing performance, to the extent that the frustration evokes other responses which interfere with that ongoing performance We have argued (4) that the results of a well-known experiment by Barker, Dembo, and Lewin (3), when re-analyzed m the light of this proposition, tend strongly to confirm it We report here the results of an experiment designed explicitly to test certain lmjJications of this proposition (We do not mean to imply that the net effect of frustration is necessarily, or even usually, a decrease in quality of performance Frustration may at the same time, for example, improve performance through increasing motivation. We are simply p(»tulating here that to the extent that frustration leads to interfering responses it will reduce the quality of performance below what it would be in tlw absence of those interfering responses ) GENERAL CHASACTEK OF THE EXPESIMENTThe experiment was done with 64 sttK^its attending a sunoner

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