When Do People Stop Non-bound Performance Tasks? Century Mark Feedback as a Stopping Rule

Abstract

Numeric cumulative feedback is often used in tasks to indicate progress and increase performer persistence. However, this research suggests that this type of feedback may unintentionally cause performers to focus on reaching multiples of 100, known as century marks, which become likely stopping points. The significance of multiples of 100 comes from their association with wholeness, completeness, and perfection in everyday language, as well as its cognitive salience. This thesis proposes that when performers encounter a century mark, they perceive it as a psychological landmark, signaling the closure of a performance set. Consequently, performers feel a greater sense of closure when they reach century marks, leading them to choose these figures as their finishing point. Seven studies and two supplementary experiments were conducted to investigate this phenomenon, and the findings indicate that performers are drawn to stop at century marks. Furthermore, century marks can have divergent effects on task persistence, increasing it for those who would not otherwise reach century marks but decreasing it for those who would do more. These results have implications for task design and feedback mechanisms in various domains.