title: The interactive effect of achievement motivation and task difficulty on mental effort.
abstract: The interactive effect of achievement motivation and task difficulty on invested mental effort, postulated by Humphreys and Revelle [Humphreys, M.S., Revelle, W., 1984. Personality, motivation, and performance: a theory of the relationship between individual differences and information processing. Psychol. Rev. 91, 153-184], was examined using behavioral, subjective, and effort-related physiological measures. Eighteen approach-driven participants and 18 avoidance-driven participants were selected based on their motive to achieve success scores and their motive to avoid failure scores. A 2x3 factorial design was used, with three levels of task difficulty. As expected, approach-driven participants performed better and had a stronger decrease of midfrequency band of heart rate variability than avoidance-driven participants, especially during the difficult task. These results support the interactive effect of achievement motivation and task difficulty on invested mental effort.
authors.affiliation: Université de Poitiers, Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage, CNRS, France. remi.capa@univ-poitiers.fr
authors.forename: Rémi L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Capa
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Audiffren
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ragot
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004576:Electromyography; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D009042:Motivation; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology; D010556:Personality Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult