Other-self similarity, motivation, emotion, and learning

Background

Effort investment is a critical component of learning and can be influenced by social comparisons, motivation, and emotion.

Aims

The current research investigated to what extent social comparisons and multimedia type associate with learning performance, as well as motivation and emotion, while controlling for spatial ability.

Samples

Participants were 129 (Study 1) and 138 (Study 2) female undergraduate students.

Methods

Participants were randomly assigned to study groups that received different visual interventions and multimedia types. The visual interventions showing learning progress in terms of effort were the same for both studies. However, in Study 2, the visual interventions with social comparison information also included textual other-self similarity information.

Results

Study 1 showed no significant main effects of the visual interventions or multimedia type on task performance. As expected, spatial ability was associated with task performance. Motivation declined over time in all study groups. While Study 2 also showed no significant main effects, spatial ability did not covary with task performance. Motivation and emotion increased over time in all study groups except for the control group. These findings suggest that other-self similarity information is associated with motivation and emotion, as well as learning outcomes independent of spatial ability.

Conclusions

The research offers unique empirical evidence of the influence of effort feedback when accompanied by other-self similarity information on motivational-affective consequences and cognitive performance.