Running head: EFFECTS OF FOREWARNING ON ANAGRAM TASK PERFORMANCE 1
Effects of Forewarning on Anagram Task Performance
Pedro I. Acosta
Florida International University
EFFECTS OF FOREWARNING ON ANAGRAM TASK PERFORMANCE 2
Methods
Participants
There was 223 participants in total. Of these, 82 were male (36.8%) and 138 were female
(61.9%). The age of the sample ranged from 15 to 63 (M = 23.51, SD = 7.58). This included
14.3% Caucasian (N = 32), 68.2% Hispanic (N = 152), 9% African American (N = 20), 1.3%
Asian American (N = 3), and 6.7% reporting as “other” (N = 15) with 0.4% missing (N = 1). Of
the two hundred and twenty three participants 97.8% reported “No” to being colorblind (N =
218).
Materials and Procedures
In accordance with the standardized guidelines for informed consent, prospective
participants were notified of the potential risks and benefits of participating in the study before
being allowed to continue with the online Qualtrics survey. If the student agreed to participate,
he or she was given authorization to continue with the online survey, the online survey consisted
of three different sections. The first section of the online survey through Qualtrics consisted of a
set of instructions the participant had to read and follow, leading up to anagrams which they had
three minutes to work on and solve as many as possible. There were two possible color
instructions participants could have received at random (either red or black). In addition,
participants either were receiving a forewarning message, or were not receive a forewarning
message (through random assignment). Both surveys had the same amount of anagrams to be
solved, with the color of instruction being the independent variable controlled fired or black), and
the participants perception of the effect on how well they did as the dependent variable
(perceived frustration), as well as participant anagrams solved correctly. Participants were
EFFECTS OF FOREWARNING ON ANAGRAM TASK PERFORMANCE 3
informed of the anticipated length it would take them complete the survey (approximately ten to
fifteen minutes) in order to allow accommodations to be made by the participant(s).
The anagram itself had twenty words, words that were solvable given more time,
however; for the sake of testing the independent variables, participants were timed and allotted
only three minutes. Afterwards, the students had to go on and complete section two that looked at
different dependent variables with scores arbitrary to the given participant based upon how they
felt. They then were instructed to circle the number on an interval scale from one to nine which
best represented their feelings about the anagram task they had just completed. The questions
included; how challenging the anagram task was (1 = not at all challenging, or 9 = extremely
challenging), how challenging they thought other participants found the anagram task (1 = not at
all challenging, or 9 = extremely challenging), how frustrating was the anagram task (1 = not at
