Psychology Commons^™

The Effect Of Experimenter's Warmth/ Coldness On Intrinsic Motivation, Phillip N. Guikema

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Individuals may approach an activity with either intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivational orientations are characterized by simplicity and predictability. Intrinsic motivation is characterized by novelty, complexity, and challenge. Task noncontingent rewards, in contrast to task contingent rewards, have been found to maintain or foster increases in intrinsic interest in a task. One explanation of this effect is that additional nonspecific factors like the perceived warmth of the experimenter was positively correlated with the noncontingent reward condition. To test this assumption, second grade subjects played with a game of intermediate complexity in one of four conditions: "cold" instructor with contingent reward, "cold" …