Fluctuations in Mental Production When Motivation is the Main Variable

Abstract

The drift toward effective attention habits is significantly parallel by drift in curricula toward vocational content. Conscious motivation causes large fluctuations in mental production. An experiment was conducted on a group of ten freshmen during probation week when they were being initiated into a fraternity. The control group was composed of fifty-four juniors. The conclusions drawn are: The difference between a genuine motivation such as the freshmen had and the kind of motivation a college class contains is a difference which not only offsets extreme fatigue, but further offsets freshmen versus junior ability, and in addition produces twice as much work per unit of time with equal accuracy. From Psych Bulletin 21:07:00717. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)