Research paper
Harkin B, Webb TL, Chang BPI, Prestwich A, Conner M, Kellar I, Benn Y, Sheeran P. Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin. 2016;142(2):198-229. doi:10.1037/bul0000025. PMID: 26479070.
Why we cite it
The meta-analysis that quantifies what progress monitoring actually buys. Pooling 138 studies and 19,951 participants, all randomised to a monitoring intervention or a control, it finds that such interventions reliably increase monitoring frequency and — through that increase — improve goal attainment. For this library it is the source behind a figure companion 280 was already using without one, and it also corrects that use: the effect is a modest average from interventions, not a ranking among predictors.