Interaction Effects of Level and Instability of Motivation on Learning Strategies: Introjected and Identified Regulation

Abstract

This study examined the interaction effect of the level and instability of motivation on different learning strategies in university learning at the contextual level. Two motivation levels—introjected and identified regulation—and three types of learning strategies—metacognitive, writing-repetition, and deep-processing—were measured. Self-reported questionnaires were administered to students from two universities in Japan; data of 307 students were included in the analysis. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis on metacognitive and deep-processing strategies revealed an interaction effect of identified regulation and instability of motivation. The results of a simple slope analysis showed that identified regulation had no effect on metacognitive and deep-processing strategies during high instability of motivation. However, during low instability of motivation, higher identified regulation enabled greater use of metacognitive and deep-processing strategies. On the other hand, there was no an interaction effect of level and instability of motivation on writing-repetition strategies. These results revealed the significant role of the level and instability of motivation in the application of metacognitive and deep-processing strategies.