On how task-contingent rewards, individual differences in causality orientations, and imagery abilities are related to intrinsic motivation and performance
✍ Scribed by Edgar E. Thill; Louis Mailhot; Jacques Mouanda
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 214 KB
- Volume
- 28
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0046-2772
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This study explored how causality orientations, individual dierences in imagery, and reward contingency are related to performance and intrinsic motivation. Cognitive evaluation theory, as applied to both causality orientation and reward contingency, was used to make predictions about the eects of internal or external events perceived as being autonomy supportive or controlling. In the light of the fact that task-contingent rewards must be salient to undermine intrinsic motivation and performance, one can suppose that high imagery may increase the controlling aspects of task-contingent rewards. Moreover, research now indicates that vegetative activation correlates with levels of imagined eort, and that high imagery capabilities enhance performance in motor skills. The main purpose of this study was to contribute some arguments for imagery and reward interaction eects on intrinsic motivation and performance. As predicted, autonomy-oriented subjects reported more interest and intrinsic motivation, and exhibited better performance than did control-oriented individuals. Similar dierences were observed in favour of high-imagery individuals. Moreover, the eects of imagery were not only subject to an interaction between imagery and causality orientation, but also between imagery and reward contingency. The links between these variables are discussed in the framework of both Carver and Scheier's (1981) motivational control theory, and Deci and Ryan's (1985a) cognitive evaluation theory.