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Cognitive Factors in Motivation (Learning) To completely understand how cognition affects the motivation to learn, a firm grasp on the separate parts, cognition and motivation, is needed. Cognition is all the mechanisms people have for taking in information through the senses, retaining it, and using it to adjust behavior to local conditions. By looking at cognition it brings to light some aspects that affect our motivation, which is the degree of effort that people make to learn something new. By delving into the cognitive factors of interest, expectancies, values and goals the effect on motivation to learn can be known.

Interests Interest traits refer to the direction of investment to which an individual is more or less oriented. In simpler terms having an interest in something such as a hobby or a certain topic means that a person wants to know and learn more about that topic and be more apart of it. There are two types of interests, personal interests and situational interests. Personal interests are a deep-seated interest, resting within the individual, where as a situational interest is a temporary interest generated by the activity one is doing. Both types of interests affect motivation however, they both have their own distinct place when it comes to learning. Personal interests lead to competence and expertise while situational interests are only vital in the first stage of what is called the Model of Domain Learning. When trying to learn a new topic or skill interest promotes more effective information processing because people who are interested in a topic devote more attention and become more cognitively engaged. They’re also more likely to process information in a meaningful, organized, and elaborate fashion. Therefore, if interests spark better learning techniques and better ways of processing data, we in turn will learn more effectively and store that information for longer periods of time.

Expectancies and Values Expectancy is an individual’s anticipation that their performance will be followed by either success or failure. Expectancy coincides with social cognitive theorists concept of self-efficacy but also takes into account such outside factors as task difficulty and available outside support. The second part which comes into play, along with expectancy, is the value of what is trying to be learned or job that needs to be accomplished. Value can be defined as the benefits one would receive from learning a subject or performing a task, in simpler terms passing the “worth it” test. . The “worth it” test means an individual sees the value or benefit of a certain task to be worth the time needed to be spent to complete that task. Expectancies and values coincide with each other and when put together affect how we are motivated. If a person has a high expectancy for success about a certain subject or a job, they are more likely to pursue that subject or job. They do this because they believe they can understand the subject or do the job well. Value comes into play when a job or subject has no worth or meaning to a person. If one does not see the benefits there will be less motivation because the person sees no return for their effort. Therefore, a high level of expectancy and a high level of value means higher motivation, and a low level of expectancy and value would result in less motivation. A simple way of viewing this is to view motivation as the product of expectancy and value.

Goals Goals are a cognitive representation of a future object that a person is committed to approach or avoid. Goals are set by an individual and will influence their choices because they will be geared towards meeting their objective. Cognitive processes are also affected by goals. Goals can either create a positive type of motivation or a negative type of motivation. A goal that dictates a positive motivation creates a reason to enhance a person’s cognitive engagement in a particular task, which in turn can lead to mastery, self-satisfaction, and enhance self-efficacy. Examples of positive motivation goals would be the desire to further one’s career and increase social relationships. These types of goals lead to a person putting forth more of their conscious effort to achieve their goal. A goal that dictates a negative motivational response results in the exertion of the least amount of effort as possible. This negative motivation can be seen in work-avoidance goals where someone tries to do as little as possible to get by. These work-avoidance goals are detrimental to learning and improvement. This is because they do not facilitate a person’s engagement in activities, which results in no advancement of ones-self.

Conclusion In conclusion, our interests, expectancies, values and goals in life influence our motivation. They can elicit positive or negative motivation, enhance learning or be a detriment to learning. Interests evoke a sense of wonder and curiosity, which enhances our cognition and makes us more engaged in learning. On the other hand, a lack of interests impedes our learning because we have no urge to know the subject and we fail to work to the best of our abilities. The same goes for our expectancy and value we put on a certain situation, both play a role in dictating our actions. Great expectancy and great value increase the chances of us performing a task well and in a timely manner. A task with little expectancy and value decrease these chances greatly. Therefor, motivation is a product of expectancy and value, and suggests that changes in motivation closer to a goal reflect changes in value, expectancy or both. Lastly, goals are what a person holds close to them and these goals guide them throughout their lifetime. Setting goals is a great way to encourage the further improvement of one-self and gives a sense of purpose to what one does everyday.