In this experiment, we examined the relation between content of praise, type of involvement, and intrinsic motivation. College students were introduced to a hidden-figure task in either an ego-involving (i.e., testlike) or task-involving (i.e., gamclike) manner and then received either ability-focused, effort-focused, or no praise for their performance. As predicted, task involvement increased intrinsic motivation relative to ego involvement, and ability praise increased intrinsic motivation relative to effort praise or no praise. Furthermore, praise and involvement interacted so that subjects who received effort praise were relatively more intrinsically motivated under task-involving than ego-involving conditions, whereas those who received ability praise were relatively more motivated under ego-involving than task-involving conditions. Also, the higher levels of intrinsic motivation were accompanied by a choice of higher level of challenge and better performance at a related but more complex task. Finally, a significant Sex X Praise interaction was found, reflecting that women tended to display more intrinsic motivation in the no-praise condition than in the two praise conditions, whereas men showed the reverse pattern.Cognitive evaluation theory proposes that intrinsic motivation is based on people's needs to be self-determining and competent (Deci & Ryan, 1980. This general perspective gives rise to two more specific predictions: (a) External events that diminish feelings of self-determination (e.g., monetary rewards, surveillance, evaluation, etc.) will undermine intrinsic motivation, and (b) competence feedback delivered within a context of perceived self-determination will enhance intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985). The latter prediction has been examined in over two dozen studies, each assessing the effects of competence feedback (usually delivered in the form of verbal praise) relative to some control condition. More specifically, four kinds of comparisons have been conducted: (a) positive feedback versus no feedback, (b) positive feedback versus feedback that indicates average or below-average performance, (c) positive feedback versus other types of rewards, and (d) positive feedback presented in an informational versus controlling manner, where informational is defined as providing effectance-relevant information in the context of perceived autonomy and con-trolling^ denned as inducing a pressure toward a specified outcome (Deci & Ryan, 1985).As regards the positive-feedback versus no-feedback comparison, several studies with college students have demonstrated that positive feedback leads to greater intrinsic motivation than

The present experiment was designed to examine whether children's gender would moderate the effects of ability-focused versus effort-focused praise on their performance, perceived competence, and intrinsic motivation. A secondary goal was to examine whether type of involvement might also serve to moderate the effects of effort-focused praise. Fifth and sixth grade boys and girls were introduced to hidden-figures puzzles in eithera task-involving (ie., gamelike) or an ego-involving (i.e., test like) manner and then received either ability-focused or effort-focused praise for their performance. The results showed that boys reported feeling relatively more competent, performed relatively better, and displayed relatively more free choice intrinsic motivation after receiving ability praise than effort praise, whereas girls reported feeling relatively more competent, performed relatively better, and evidenced relatively greater intrinsic motivation after receiving effort than ability praise. The differential impact of ability-focused versus effort-focused praise was especially pronounced for boys. These findings are discussed in terms of boys' and girls' previous history with verbal rewards and gender differences in performance attributions. No effects were found for type of involvement.