Experimental Design
Stage 1: Measuring the Causal Relationship Between Effort and Performance
In Stage 1, participants first complete an initial survey and take an online assessment test. The main aim of the survey is to collect demographic information about participants. The test assesses their initial level of knowledge of Spanish. Participants then sign up for an online language-learning platform. Participants are randomly allocated to online classrooms with different assignment levels. After studying through the platform as assigned for one month, they take another online test that assesses their final level of knowledge and they answer a short survey about their study behavior.
Stage 2: Eliciting and Changing Beliefs about How Effort Affects Performance
In Stage 2, participants first complete the initial survey and take the online assessment test. They then sign up for the same online language-learning platform. Every week, they complete a survey eliciting their beliefs about the importance of study effort on determining performance. After the first belief elicitation survey, a random subset of the participants receives information regarding the effect of the study effort on performance, which is based on the information collected in Stage 1 whereas the others do not receive such information. Participants in Stage 2 are free to study through the platform as much as they like for one month. At the end of study period, they take the final test and answer a short end survey about their study patterns.