The study reported in the article investigates the affects of implicit content of feedback on intrinsic motivation for some initially neutral task. Feedback categories manipulated in the study were defined in terms of positivity/negativity of particular appraisals. Feedback types were determined according to the implicit information the appraisals in question contained about person's potential abilities.
The results of the study strongly suggest that in a context of redused external factors the imposition of feedback implicitly admitting person's potentional abilities may significantly enhance subjects' intrinsic interest in a task thus determining a positive overt behaviour (engaging in a task performance activity) .On the other hand the affects of feedback implicitly discounting person's potentional abilities may be considerably detrimental to subjects' intrinsic motivation determining a negative overt behaviour (avoiding an engagement in a task). Neither intrinsic motivation nor the opportunity of overt behaviour prediction were affected by the feedback category manipulation.