Performance evaluation is based on comparison standards. Results can either be contrasted to former results (temporal comparison) or results of others (social comparison). Existing literature analyzed potential effects of teachers’ stable preferences for comparison standards on students’ learning outcomes. The present experiments investigated effects of learners’ own preferences for comparison standards on learning persistence and performance. Based on research and findings on person-environment-fit, we postulated a fit hypothesis for learners’ preferences for comparison standards and framed feedback on learning persistence and performance. We tested our hypotheses in two separate experiments (N = 203 and N = 132) using different manipulations of framed feedback (temporal vs. social) in an e-learning environment, thus establishing high ecological validity and allowing objective data to be collected. We found first evidence for beneficial effects of receiving framed feedback towards own preferences on learning persistence and performance in our experiments. We tested fluency as a possible underlying psychological mechanism in our second experiment and observed a larger fit effect on learning persistence under disfluency. The results are discussed regarding a new theoretical perspective on the concept of preferences for comparison standards as well as opportunities for adaptive e-learning.

Feedback is a key factor in helping individuals to self-regulate their learning behavior. Informative feedback, as a very basic form of feedback informing learners about the correctness of their answers, can be framed in different ways emphasizing either what was correct or what must be improved. The regulatory focus theory describes different strategic orientations of individuals towards goals, which may be associated with different effects of different informative feedback types. A promotion orientation describes the preference for approaching positive outcomes, while a prevention orientation describes the preference for avoiding negative ones. Applied to the context of informative feedback in self-regulated e-learning environments, we predict that regulatory fit, defined as the congruence of individuals’ regulatory orientations and framed feedback, positively affects learning persistence and performance. In two experiments, we assessed individuals’ regulatory orientations and experimentally varied framed feedback in samples of university students preparing for exams with an e-learning tool (N = 182, experiment 1; N = 118, experiment 2) and observed actual learning behaviors. Using different operationalizations of regulatory-framed feedback, we found statistically significant regulatory fit effects on persistence and performance in both experiments, although some remain insignificant. In experiment 2, we additionally tested ease of processing as a mechanism for regulatory fit effects. This way, we expand the literature on regulatory fit effects and feedback on actual learning behavior and provide evidence for the benefits of adaptive learning environments. We discuss limitations, especially regarding the stability of regulatory fit, as well as future directions of research on regulatory-framed feedback.

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