In the Rosenthal and Jacobson study, what were the randomly selected students who were believed to have the potential for rapid academic progress called?

• A. Spurters
• B. Pygmalions
• C. Self-fulfilling prophecy
• D. Boosters

Answer: (A)

The main idea tested is that expectations can shape student performance. In this study, researchers labeled a randomly chosen group of students as having potential for rapid growth and called them “spurters.” That label led teachers to interact with those students more supportively, provide more attention and feedback, and offer them more opportunities, which in turn produced greater gains for the labeled group. This demonstrates the Pygmalion effect—the self-fulfilling prophecy in action in the classroom. The other terms don’t fit as labels the researchers used: the mechanism is the self-fulfilling prophecy, and the term used for the students in the study is spurters.