'A' positive?

• Tuesday, 9 March 2010
• Alexandra Wenman
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Seeing certain letters can affect your performance in exams, say researchers

Researchers at the University of Missouri in the USA have discovered that seeing the letter A before an exam can boost your performance, while seeing the letter F has the opposite effect.

Dr Keith Ciani at the University says: "The letters A and F have significant meaning for students, A
represents success and F, failure."

"These findings suggest that exposure to letters A and F, even
without any
explicit reference to success or failure, significantly affected the
students'
performance on the tests. Exposure to the letter A made the students non-consciously approach the task with the aim to succeed."