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

• 1. intrinsic goal
• 2. extrinsic goal
• 3. no goal

The SDT hypothesis was that no goal would perform better than extrinsic goals since extrinsic goals would distract from the purpose of the task. Expectancy-Valence theories support extrinsic goal performance to bee higher than no goal since it is added value to the behavior. The SDT theory was more accurate and no goal framing led to higher autonomous motivation, performance and long- term persistence. Extrinsic goal framing did lead to better short-term persistence.

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