Memories of previous success or failure can effect how students approach learning methods such as desirable difficulties. Memories of failure result in decreased willingness to engage in similar challenging tasks in the future, whereas memories of achievement can enhance motivation and make it more likely for students to engage in desirable difficulties.

Memory of prior experiences

Two main types of achievement goals, performance and mastery, can give rise to different types of study behaviors. Students with a mastery goal orientation are focused on learning/developing understanding, and therefore are more likely to engage in desirable difficulties. By contrast, students with a performance goal orientation are more focused on short-term performance, and therefore are less likely to engage in desirable difficulties. 

Achievement goal orientation

Affective states present during learning can influence our motivation and effort we put towards difficult tasks. Feelings of curiosity and interest are related to higher motivation to engage with and put effort towards learning. Feelings of boredom or difficulty, on the other hand, reduce motivation.

Affective state

Expectancy and value rating based on EVT can predict student effort on tasks. If a task is deemed as valuable, students will put more effort towards it, which can result in an increased likelihood of using desirable difficulties. Similarly, if a successful outcome is expected, a student will be more motivated to engage in difficult learning strategies. 

Task outcome expectancy/value

Students are often less likely to engage in learning processes involving desirable difficulties if the task outcome results in little effect on their grade.

Consequences on grades

If students have low competency beliefs, they may be more inclined to avoid challenging learning practices like desirable difficulties.   

Beliefs of competency

Research has shown that frames affect learning strategy selection, as well as strategies students adopt when faced with a difficult learning task. Depending on how the task is framed, students may be more or less motivated to engage in desirable difficulties.

How the task is framed 

Whether or not students decide to engage in learning processes such as desirable difficulties greatly depends on how motivated they are to do so. This motivation can be influenced by a number of factors, including:
- memory of prior experiences
- task outcome expectancy/value
- achievement goal orientation
- affective state
- consequences on grades
- beliefs of competency 
- how the task is framed

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

A learning task that requires a considerable but desirable amount of effort, thereby improving long-term performance.

Examples:

- Interleaving Materials
- Spacing Studying
- Generation Effect
- Retrieval practice (testing)
- Varying Study Conditions

Desirable Difficulties

Motivation

Finn, B. (2020). Exploring interactions between motivation and cognition to better shape self-regulated learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 9(4), 461-467

Exploring interactions between motivation and cognition to better shape self-regulated learning

Long term retention improves when you generate your own questions and answers rather than getting presented with them. The Generation Effect also explains why reading/highlighting are not very effective compared to generating new materials.

Generation Effect

Interleaving refers to studying different concepts in a single period of time. Although it may seem more difficult at the time of studying, interleaving information during study time improves long term retention of the materials. 

Example: When studying for a cumulative final, it may seem easy to study a single chapter each day leading up to the exam. However, for long term retention, you should study parts of multiple chapter each day, thus interleaving the topics.

Interleaving Study Materials

Information can become associated with the context and conditions of study sessions. Thus, varying study conditions will improve later recall. To better retain information, it is important to alter aspects of studying.

Examples of variation:

-environment

-duration

-type of study (flashcards, group work, etc.)

Vary Study Conditions

Desirable Difficulties References

The cognitive bases of desirable difficulties: memory and metacognition  

Motivation and desirable difficulties: Variables effecting self-regulatory learning processes

Long-term recall is improved when studying is broken up into many short sessions rather than long concentrated ones (memory consolidation is improved). 

Spacing effect

Studying by practice tests improves encoding into long term memory more than rereading passages (while there is no difference in short term understanding).
- using tests as learning events 
- question asking
- flashcards

Retrieval practice ( testing effect )

- Research suggests that online participation including social interaction in collaborative online learning environments, is crucial in motivating students to learn and promote learning satisfaction. There needs to be a balance between group and individual participation for online learning environments to be effective. This study determined two visualization tools to motivate students to participate actively and examine its effects.

- The results show that the visualization tool on online participation can enhance their online participation however, the visualization of individual participation has a greater effect than the visualization of group participation, despite the collaborative learning community. 

Using Visualization to Motivate Student Participation in Collaborative Online Learning Environments 

"Awareness is defined as "understanding of the activities of others, which provides a context for your own activity" (Dourish & Bellotti)

- two types of awareness: group awareness and objective self-awareness.

Awareness Information

Health behaviors (e.g., healthy eating, physical activity, practicing mindfulness) improve overall health (including physical health) and reduce the risk of chronic illnesses. However, in order for people to regularly engage in these behaviors, they need to have the motivation to do so.

Motivation | Connection to Health and Chronic Diseases

Looking at gender, age, SES, use of camera for lecturer and students, belief of neessity of distanced education, belief about effectiveness, and belief of negtive impact of pandemic on motivation, they looked at the cyclical effect of distanced learning motivation and it's impact on frequency of class attendence, mediated by anxiety, stress, depression and Intolerence of Uncertainty (IU).

- Women showed higher attendence than men
- men's motivation was higher than women's
- use of computers showed more attendence than use of smartphones
- use of computers showed higher motivation compared to use of smartphones
- urban students attended class more often
- urban students had lower levels of motivation
- depression negatively impacted attendence, though stress positively predicted attendence
- stress is not significantly associated with distance learning motivation 
- inhibitory IU was positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, but negatively with motivation.
- IU predicts increase in relationship between anxiety and stress
- Women show higher rates of anxiety, stress, depression and IU during the pandemic
- gender is not related to student satisfaction with learning.

Psycho-demographic variables effects on higher education students during COVID-19 in Turkey

Pande, P., Thit, A., Sørensen, A. E., Mojsoska, B., Moeller, M. E., & Jepsen, P. M. (2021). Long-term effectiveness of immersive VR simulations in undergraduate science learning: Lessons from a media-comparison study. Research in Learning Technology, 29, 24. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezp1.villanova.edu/10.25304/rlt.v29.2482

Long-term effectiveness of immersive VR simulations in undergraduate science learning: Lessons from a media-comparison study

-  Positive reinforcement/ high expectations  
-  Base rewards on job performance 
-  Effective discipline and punishment  
-  Satisfy employees needs 
-  Set work related goals  
-  Restructure jobs
-  Treat people fairly  


Strategies to Improve Employee Motivation


-  Job enlargement
-  Job enrichment 
-  Job rotation

Techniques of Employee Motivation 

-  Human Capital Management 
-  Meet Personal Goals and Help an Employee Stay Motivated 
-  Greater Employee Satisfaction
-  Raising Employee Efficiency
-  A Higher Chance of Meeting the Company’s Goals
-  Better Team Harmony 
-  Workforce Stability




Benefits that Employee Motivation Brings to a Company 


-  Carry out responsibilities to the best of their ability 
-  Persistent
-  Creative
-  Productive
-  Produce high quality work that they willingly pursue. 



Characteristics of Motivated Employees

-  Likely to spend little or no effort on assigned tasks,
-  Avoid the workplace as much as they can,
-  Leave the organization if given the opportunity 
-  Produce poor quality work.


Characteristics of Unmotivated Employees


When the means of participation is to achieve some other goal (status, money, etc.). For example, if I play a sport because I think it will impress someone. Extrinsic motivation involves doing something to receive something form others.

Extrinsic Motivation

Key theories and methods related to motivation include:
- Instinct Theory
- Drive Reduction Theory
- Self-Determination Theory (SDT)
- Self-Efficacy
- Social Motives
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
- Expectancy-Valence Theories
- Incentive Theory
- Yerkes-Dodson Law
- Temporal Motivation Theory
- Remembered Success Effect
- Procrastination
- Gamification
- Game Based Learning

Theories and Methods of Motivation

Similar to eating, sexual activity is a fundamental motivated behavior essential to many people's lives. While its primary evolutionary purpose is the perpetuation of the species, human sexual behavior is complex and extends far beyond simple reproduction. The psychological study of this domain provides an overview of research on human sexual behavior and motivation, including key topics like sexual orientation and gender identity.

Sexual Behavior, Sexuality, and Gender Identity

Motivational theory in psychology comprises a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as a hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Influential figures in researching motivation include:

- William James

Influential Figures in Research on Motivation

When the performance (engagement) of some activity is the end in its own right. For example, I play a sport because I enjoy doing it and may have fond memories of doing it. Intrinsic motivation relates to the personal satisfaction one feels from doing the behavior.

Intrinsic Motivation

Biologically-oriented theories of motivation propose that behavior is driven by innate biological mechanisms. Key examples include theories centered on instincts and the physiological need to maintain the body's internal balance, or homeostasis.

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