Examining how the presence, absence and numerical value of a grade affects students’ perceptions of assessment feedback.

We explored whether the academic grade a student sees influences how positively or negatively they interpret written assessment feedback. Specifically, an experimental design was used where N = 94 psychology students each read an identical passage of neutrally worded feedback. Depending upon which of three experimental conditions they had been allocated to, they also saw with the feedback either a grade of (i) 75% (High Grade; n = 33); (ii) 45% (Low Grade: n = 31) or (iii) No Grade (control condition; n = 30). Next, they answered seven questions relating to their perceptions of the feedback they had read. As predicted, those in the High Grade and No Grade conditions provided significantly more positive perceptions of the neutral feedback compared to those in the Low Grade condition. Implications for those within higher education, who are responsible for deciding how and when grades and feedback are released to students, are discussed.