A test of theories of social facilitation using a musical task.

Examined the effects of the presence of others, recording equipment, and a mirror on 80 undergraduates' performance of a musical task. These 3 conditions were designed to test predictions derived from the mere presence, evaluation apprehension, and objective self-awareness accounts of social facilitation phenomena. The relationship between task performance and individual differences in scores on the Test Anxiety Scale was also assessed. Ss were each assigned to 1 of 16 conditions in a 2 (male vs female)?×?2 (well-practiced vs poorly practiced)?×?4 (others present, evaluation, mirror, alone) design. Results show that task performance, as measured by melodic errors, did not conform to any of the theoretical predictions. An attentional model of social facilitation phenomena is advanced as a possible explanation for failures to obtain effects predicted by drive-based theories.