Reconstructing cognitive agency: contingent feedback to overcome learned helplessness and restore locus of control
Keywords:
Contingent Feedback, Cognitive Agency, Learned Helplessness, Restore Locus of ControlAbstract
Purpose: This study investigates the efficacy of a contingent feedback intervention in mitigating learned helplessness and elevating internal academic locus of control among students experiencing cognitive decoupling between effort exertion and academic evaluation outcomes.
Method: A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design was employed. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was executed to control for pre-test covariates, evaluating shifts in learned helplessness and academic locus of control using validated psychometric instruments.
Findings: ANCOVA results confirmed a statistically significant intervention effect, accounting for 52.3% of the variance in learned helplessness reduction and 54.8% of the variance in internal academic locus of control increase. Process-oriented descriptive feedback successfully restored cognitive agency by shifting attributional structures from external factors to internal, controllable variables.
Practical implications: Educators can deploy structured contingent feedback to attenuate evaluative anxiety, optimize working memory capacity allocation, and re-engage students exhibiting academic passivity, learned helplessness, and burnout.
Originality/value: This research offers robust empirical evidence for cognitive agency reconstruction, demonstrating that attributional deficits can be systematically reversed by establishing real-time effort-outcome contingency cues rather than relying on traditional quantitative scoring.
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References
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