An instructor was interested in how framing impacted her students' feelings about their grades. She randomly assigned students to either receive positive This is an improvement or negative. You still need a lot of work on this) feedback on the assignment. She further assigned students to a points lost (-10 points) or points gained (+90 points) condition. After each assignment was returned, she asked students to rate the fairness of their grades on a 10-point scale (0= not fair at all, 10 = extremely fair).

The table shows the result.

Points Lost Points Gained Mean

Positive Feedback 7.8 7.9 7.85

Negative Feedback 4.3 5.5 4.9

Mean 6.05 6.7

The cells of this study reflect an interaction between feedback type and whether points were lost or gained. What BEST describes that interaction?

a. Students who received positive feedback rated their grades as more fair than students received negative feedback.

b. For students in the positive feedback condition, framing points as lost or gained did not impact their perception of fairness. However, when students received negative feedback, they rated assignments framed as gains as more fair than assignments framed as losses.

c. For students in the negative feedback condition, framing points as lost or gained did not impact their perception of fairness. However, when students received positive feedback, they rated assignments framed as gains as more fair than assignments framed as losses.

d. Students who had grades that were framed in terms of gains rated their grades as more fair than students who had grades that were framed in terms of losses.