Performance and attributions to ability, effort, task, and luck of retarded adults after success or failure feedback.

Performance and causal ascriptions to the four factors effort, ability, luck, and task difficulty as a function of success for failure feedback were investigated. A total of 40 male, educable mentally retarded adults served as subjects. Although performance was unaffected by feedback, results, indicated that (a) success was ascribed to ability more than failure was attributed to lack of ability, (b) failure was attributed to lack of effort more than success was ascribed effort, and (c) failure was ascribed more to bad luck than than success was attributed to good luck. No effects were found on task attributions. Research implications for the attribution theory interpretation of the mentally retarded adults' motivation in achievement-related situations were discussed.