title: The impact of motivation and teachers' autonomy support on children's executive functions.
abstract: The present study investigates the interplay of executive functions, motivation, and teacher's autonomy support in school context. In a cross-sectional study design 208 students from different school types completed a standardized motivation questionnaire and processed two executive function tasks. All teachers who teach these students were asked about their autonomy supporting behavior by a standardized test. Multilevel analyses assessed the effects of the student's motivation and their teachers' autonomy support on student's executive functions. Our results show considerable relationships between these variables: high executive function capacities came along with teacher's autonomy support and student's intrinsic motivation styles, whereas low executive function capacities were related to external regulation styles. The results indicate the importance of autonomy support in school instruction and disclose the need to popularize the self-regulation approach.
authors.affiliation: Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
authors.forename: Zrinka
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sosic-Vasic
authors.affiliation: Transfercenter of Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Keis
authors.affiliation: Transfercenter of Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic of Ulm, Ulm Germany ; Transfercenter of Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spitzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Streb
keywords: autonomy; executive functions; motivation; school; self-regulation