Pilot study
We conducted a pilot study (N = 49) to determine how many
words, on average, people can create within a 2 min time limit.
In each of eight rounds, participants were given 2 min to create
words using different combinations of seven letters while following
these rules: ‘‘Each word must be an English word, two or more
letters long, other than a proper noun, made by using each of the
seven letters only once per word, and used in only one form.”
We used the results of the pilot study to identify a performance
goal for our main study. As in prior studies that used anagram tasks
to investigate goal setting, our goal was set equal to the 90th percentile
of performance (e.g., Schweitzer et al., 2004). Specifically,
the goal we gave participants was to create 12 words in each
round. As explained in detail below, this goal was used to determine
participants’ payoff during Study 1.