Mel McKendrick

To view the full text, please login as a subscribed user or purchase a subscription. Click here to view the full text on ScienceDirect. Fig. 1 Rasch item characteristic curves: (a) steps and (b) errors. The x-axis represents student ability. Zero represents an average student; points to the right of the zero represent a comparatively better student and to the left a worse student. The y-axis represents the probability that the subject conducts steps or fails to notice an error.

The aim of the current study was to investigate whether expectations arising from written statements can prime attention to facial features and whether such a processing pattern subsequently impacts on self-esteem. That is, can such written statements provide a context that influences behaviour and subsequent feelings? This is a theoretically important issue which to date has been largely unexplored.