Motivational influences on cognition: Task involvement, ego involvement, and depth of information processing.

In Experiment 1, 5th- and 6th-grade children were randomly assigned to either a task-focused motivational condition, an ego-focused condition, or a control group. They received a list of 60 words manipulated to be encoded at either shallow or deep levels of processing. An unexpected recall test then followed. Experiment 2 used the same general procedure except that the motivational manipulation was timed to occur at either encoding or retrieval. In both experiments ego involvement resulted in poorer word recall at deep rather than at shallow processing levels. Experiment 2 also indicated that the motivational deficits resulting from ego involvement are more pervasive at the information-retrieval stage. The usefulness of these findings for promoting greater conceptual clarity among motivation constructs is discussed.