A study was conducted where the goals for a task were framed in three ways, as having:

• 1. intrinsic goal
• 2. extrinsic goal
• 3. both intrinsic and extrinsic goals

If the expectancy-valence theories were correct, there the best performance would be seen in the group were goals were extrinsic and intrinsic (instead of only one) since both extrinsic and intrinsic oriented students would do well. SDT prevailed since the group with only goals framed intrinsically performed the best (SDT's reasoning would be that the mixed goals take away from the importance of the intrinsic goal)

(Vansteenkiste, Simons, Lens, Soenens, et al. 2004)