The Impact of Enactive Exploration on Intrinsic Motivation, Strategy, and Performance in Electronic Search

Post-training self-efficacy and satisfaction had a positive influence on the quality of strategies used on the transfer tasks but intrinsic motivation was negatively related to strategy quality.

Abstract

On a re´alise´ une investigation expe´rimentale des effets de l’exploration e´nactive sur la motivation intrinse`que, la strate´gie et la performance dans une tache de recherche e´lectronique. L’exploration e´nactive recouvre une part d’exploration autonome et de gestion des erreurs que les sujets de la condition expe´rimentale ont e´te´ incite´s a` exploiter lors de la phase pratique d’un programme de formation. Les sujets controle be´ne´ficiaient de la même formation de base et e´taient confronte´s a` la même phase pratique sans l’incitation a` l’exploration e´nactive. Celle‐ci suscitait une motivation intrinse`que plus forte mais n’influenc¸ait pas les facteurs d’autore´gulation. Les sujets expe´rimentaux avaient aussi de meilleurs re´sultats dans les tâches de transfert re´alise´es avec une expectation pre´cise de la performance. L’efficacite´ perc¸ue a` l’issue de la formation et la satisfaction avaient un impact positif sur la qualite´ des strate´gies retenues dans les tâches de transfert, mais la motivation intrinse`que nuisait a` la qualite´ de la strate´gie. La discussion porte sur la fac¸on dont les consignes introduisant a` l’exploration e´nactive influencent la motivation intrinse`que et sur l’impact de la motivation intrinse`que sur la strate´gie et la performance dans les tâches complexes. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of enactive exploration on intrinsic motivation, strategy, and performance on an electronic search task. Enactive exploration includes elements of self‐guided exploration and error management, which participants in the experimental condition were encouraged to utilise during the practice segment of a training programme. Participants in the comparison condition received the same basic training and completed the same practice segment without the enactive exploration intervention. Enactive exploration produced higher intrinsic motivation than the comparison condition but did not influence other self‐regulatory factors. Participants trained in the enactive exploration mode also had higher performance levels on transfer tasks performed under stringent performance expectations. Post‐training self‐efficacy and satisfaction had a positive influence on the quality of strategies used on the transfer tasks but intrinsic motivation was negatively related to strategy quality. The ways in which enactive exploration instructions influence intrinsic motivation and the effects of intrinsic motivation on strategy and performance on complex tasks are discussed.