Abstract
The present study investigated the hypothesis that expectancies for rewards inherent in a task (working a Soma puzzle) increase intrinsic motivation for the task. Stronger expectancies of task-inherent rewards were predicted when performance was maximally informative about correct responses. Informativeness of performance was varied by giving one group of subjects feedback directly from performance (task-internal feedback), another group feedback from a source outside the task (task-external feedback), and a third group feedback from both sources (mixed feedback). Intrinsic motivation was measured by the time spent working the puzzle during a 10-min. free-choice period. Questionnaire items measured (1) informativeness of performance and (2) expectancies that the performance would be rewarding. As predicted, task-internal feedback made performance more informative and resulted both in stronger expectancies of task-inherent rewards and greater intrinsic motivation for the puzzle than task-external feedback. The third group showed intermediate values on all measures.
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