EFFECTS OF EVALUATION BY TESTS ON INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

In Relation to Test Anxiety

Abstract

In some preceding studies, it has been reported that if a certain task would be considered as a kind of achievement test, then one's intrinsic motivation for the task would be undermined. This present study was conducted in order to examine the hypothesis that test anxiety was one of the main factors undermining intrinsic motivation. Male undergraduate subjects with high and low test anxiety were assigned for either no-test condition or test condition. In both conditions, subjects engaged in solving puzzles, and only the subjects in test condition, were told that the task was a kind of intelligence test. The results were: intrinsic motivation of high test anxious subjects did not differ significantly between conditions, while low test anxious subjects indicated significantly lower intrinsic motivation in test condition than in no-test condition. The hypothesis could not be testified, but the results were discussed from various angles with theoretical implications for cognitive evaluation theory.