A mixed methods design was used to identify factors associated with motivational engagement in video gaming. Self-report instruments were administered to 189 video game players to assess goal orientations, affect, need for cognition, and perceptions of engagement and flow. Simultaneously, a sub-set of 25 participants were interviewed and results analyzed to identify patterns that influenced their propensity for gaming. Regression results revealed motivational engagement for gaming was related to gender, hours of play, task orientation, and socialization. Players indicated that gaming was socially captivating, fun, challenging but relaxing, and precipitated positive affect and cognition even when unsuccessful results were achieved. The negative consequences normally associated with task failure were not reported by participants to take place during gaming. We concluded transfer of motivational engagement in gaming for entertainment to educational contexts was unlikely to occur.

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a b s t r a c tWe investigated the influence of self-efficacy beliefs and working memory capacity on mathematical problem-solving performance, response time, and efficiency (i.e., the ratio of problems solved correctly to time). Students completed a letter-recoding task (Experiment 1) or an operation span task (Experiment 2), rated their self-efficacy for solving mental multiplication problems, and then solved similar problems of varying complexity. We tested the motivational efficiency hypothesis, which predicted that motivational beliefs, such as self-efficacy, increase problem-solving efficiency through focused effort and strategy use. Experiments 1 and 2 reported a significant effect for self-efficacy on problem-solving performance and efficiency, but limited effects for time. A self-efficacy by working memory interaction occurred in Experiment 1, suggesting self-efficacy is beneficial as demands on working memory increase. These findings suggested that self-efficacy increased problem-solving efficiency through strategic performance rather than faster solution times, and were consistent with the motivational efficiency hypothesis.