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It is generally assumed that learning is internalization of externally available knowledge and occurs under the active control of one internal source of self-regulation: executive self-regulation. This article argues that these assumptions undermine the creative and multisource nature of learning, limit its domain to incremental learning of facts and definitions, and are largely responsible for achievement and motivational problems children experience in schools. The article defines learning as creative reconceptualization of internal knowledge and proposes two different sources of internal self-regulation: one to regulate largely the sequential aspect of learning and another to coordinate its simultaneous aspect. To extend the domain of learning beyond incremental memorization of facts, both sources of internal self-regulation must be the target of cognitive and metacognitive instruction and research.

In this study, I investigated some of the cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking. In Experiment 1, 240 undergraduates read stories with endings that varied in the degree of surprise, outcome valence (i.e., goodness or badness of outcome), and incongruity resolution. The results did not support the hypothesis that degree of surprise per se causes interest (Schank, 1979). Instead, as suggested by Kintsch (1980), subjects rated high-surprise story endings as more interesting than low-surprise story endings for those conditions in which the postsurprise incongruity was resolved (p < .01) but not for those in which the incongruity remained unresolved. The results also supported the hypothesis that interest and liking arise from different causes. Outcome valence had a substantial influence on liking (p < .001) but no effect on interest. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2. I conclude that interest arises from the degree of (postsurprise) intellectual activity and that liking but not interest is caused by outcome valence. I am grateful to James Jackson and Wllbeit McKeachie for their support and valuable assistance. I also thank

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