Estimates of amount of work one can do

Abstract

In this study subjects were given a brief opportunity to examine a task, and then were asked to estimate how much they could do in a three-minute period of time. Later these estimates were checked against actual performance. Six different pencil and paper tasks were presented to 561 school children in grades ranging from fourth to ninth, and to 154 college sophomores. Two laboratory tasks also were estimated by 48 of the sophomores. The results of these experiments are presented in seven tables and a rather detailed discussion. Among the conclusions it is stated that "no clearly demonstrable relationship exists between correctness of estimates and performance," and that the "direction of estimates, i.e., whether over- or under-estimation, is largely determined by the nature of the task estimated." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)