EFFECTS OF RATING PROCEDURE AND TEMPORAL DELAY ON THE MAGNITUDE OF CONTRAST EFFECTS IN PERFORMANCE RATINGS

This study examined the effects of performance appraisal rating procedure and temporal delay between the viewing and rating of performance on contrast effects in performance ratings. College students (N = 183) viewed two videotapes depicting poor (anchor stimulus) and average (target stimulus) performance. There was no support for the hypothesized interaction between delay and procedure. However, lower contrast effects characterized the ratings of participants who rated both videotaped performances simultaneously relative to the ratings of those who rated the performances sequentially. In addition, contrast effects were smaller when a delay occurred between the observation and rating of performances. These findings suggest that the most common rating procedures used in laboratory investigations of contrast effects are likely to overstate the impact of this rating error in actual appraisal situations, in which delayed and simultaneous rating procedures are more widely used.