We often assume that positive feedback will always encourage people to keep trying hard. However, new research by our latest Researcher of the Month, Professor Nils Jostmann, and his co-author Professor Eddie Brummelman, suggests that praise and encouragement can sometimes have the opposite effect, and that how and when we give feedback really matters.

Feeling positive about our progress on a task, or believing that we are doing better than we expected to, can sometimes act as a cue that less effort is needed, causing us to work less hard or 'coast'. Positive feedback may therefore have unintended consequences. Rather than spurring us on, it can sometimes encourage us to ease off because we feel confident that we are already doing well enough. Professor Jostmann's recent research sought to explore this further, examining whether the timing of positive feedback influences whether it boosts motivation or inadvertently undermines performance.

Summary

The study invited a group of adults to participate in a series of experiments involving the completion of repeated, simple, on screen calculation tasks. These were motivationally taxing but not cognitively challenging, so they did not create anxiety or stress.

The participants were split into two groups. Some received immediate positive feedback on the screen after completing a task, such as ‘Good job’. They were told that this meant they had done particularly well, or outperformed others in the group. Others received no immediate feedback. This absence of feedback was designed to be uninformative. Participants were told that not receiving feedback simply meant that the researchers had chosen not to provide any; it didn't necessarily mean they had performed poorly. The participants who did not receive feedback performed better in the tasks, in terms of both speed and accuracy.

Before each new task began, participants were shown a brief announcement indicating that the next task was about to start. Although such prompts are normally ignored, the researchers subtly altered them in ways that captured participants' attention and encouraged them to prepare mentally for the upcoming task.

For the participants receiving feedback, some were given comments before seeing this message and others after. When feedback was delivered immediately after completing the task, before the new task was announced, positive feedback led to coasting. However, when the same positive feedback was delivered after the announcement message, by which point participants had already entered a state of readiness for the next task, the coasting effect disappeared and performance actually improved.

The researchers found that feedback timing matters. Once participants had started thinking about or preparing for their next task, positive feedback acted as a boost to motivation rather than a signal that they could relax and coast. These findings were robust and consistent and weren't impacted by personality factors or situational differences.

The study suggests that positive feedback can be a powerful motivator, but it may be most helpful when it encourages people towards their next challenge rather than rewarding them immediately after the last one. Whilst the study has not yet been replicated in children, it may indicate that praise is most effective when children are already engaged in, or preparing for, their next task. Telling a child, "You did brilliantly on that piece of work" just before they switch off may have a different and less motivational effect than offering the same praise once they are focused on the next challenge.

For parents and educators, an awareness of when and how to give feedback is likely to make it more effective.

Implications

Tips for parents and educators

Remember that it's not only about motivation. Feedback and praise can communicate multiple things and children and teens are very sensitive to it. It can tell young people how they are viewed by significant adults, reinforce feelings of competence and provide information about the quality of a relationship. It can help children understand what they have done well, build their confidence and sense of belonging and strengthen connections with parents, teachers and other trusted adults. It's not only for the purpose of motivation and we should continue to offer positive feedback and praise with these numerous factors in mind.

Be clear about the goal of your feedback. Whilst positive feedback can serve many functions, it may not achieve them all at once. Before praising a child, consider what you are hoping to achieve. Are you trying to build their confidence? Celebrate an achievement? Strengthen your relationship? Or are you hoping to motivate them to keep working towards a particular goal? Being clear about your purpose can help you use feedback more effectively.

Focus on the controllables. Did you know that feedback which targets children's personalities, such as, “You’re very good” or, “You’re so intelligent” can actually have detrimental effects. It is more beneficial to provide positive feedback on things that children can control, including effort and persistence.

Link praise to the next step. If your aim is to sustain motivation, positive feedback may be most motivating when children have already started thinking about what comes next. If a child or teen has done well on a test, project or piece of work, help them to reflect on next steps before celebrating their success. We might encourage a moment of reflection and then connect praise to future goals. What would you like to achieve next? What are your priorities or plan moving forward? Once children have considered their next steps, positive feedback can reinforce their confidence and help fuel future effort.

Consider what your praise is communicating. When we are just beginning a new activity, we are often less concerned with progress and more concerned with questions such as: Am I good at this? Do I enjoy it? Is this worth pursuing? Feedback that builds confidence and enjoyment at the start of a task may be particularly valuable for children. Later, when they have become more competent, it may be helpful to combine praise with conversations about future goals, next steps and continued growth.

Unexpected praise may have a stronger impact. Professor Jostmann suggests that the effects of positive feedback may depend partly on how surprising it is. According to the theory underlying coasting, people constantly make predictions about how well they are doing. Positive feedback has the greatest impact when it tells us something new; namely, that we are performing better than we expected. This means that praise which is highly predictable may have less influence. If a child is accustomed to receiving enthusiastic encouragement from a parent, those positive comments may become expected and less informative. By contrast, praise from someone who rarely gives compliments, or from a person whose opinion carries particular weight, may come as more of a surprise and have a stronger effect. Feedback that exceeds their expectations may be more likely to influence how they think and feel about their achievements and may sometimes have a greater effect on their subsequent effort.

Try to make learning relevant to real life. Since coasting is more common when children don’t feel a sense of intrinsic interest or motivation to learn, anything that we can do to explain the relevance of learning content is key. In a recent, as yet unpublished, study, Professor Jostmann and his colleagues found that students who felt their maths teacher successfully explained why the subject matter was relevant tended to achieve higher grades. While the findings are correlational and do not prove cause and effect, they suggest that helping students see the value and purpose of their learning may play a role in supporting engagement and academic success.

Finally, remember that coasting is not always a bad thing. Balance is important. We don’t need to optimise our effort at all times. Children and young people have multiple goals competing for their time and energy, including learning, friendships, family life, hobbies and rest. Coasting can give us space to prioritise and balance competing goals, and allow time for relaxation and rest, which is also vital.

Tune into our interview with Professor Jostmann here.