Effects of instructional set and self-awareness on task performance of retarded female adults.

The effects of success, failure, and neutral instructional sets on the task performance of retarded female adults were studied under varying conditions of self-awareness. A significant Set X Self-Awareness interaction was found where subjects in the neutral-set condition under high-awareness assembled more pens than subjects under the medium- or low-awareness conditions. The results were discussed in light of the expectancy of failure hypothesis.