On the Importance of Self-Determination for Intrinsically-Motivated Behavior

Abstract

Yoked pairs of subjects solved puzzles such that one member of each pair was given choice about what puzzles to work on and how much time to allot to each, while the yoked subject was assigned the same puzzles and time allotments as those chosen by the first subject. It was predicted and found that subjects who chose the activities and time allotments -in other words, who had additional self-determination--would be more intrinsically motivated than subjects doing the same activity without choice.

Using Socially Assistive Human–Robot Interaction to Motivate Physical Exercise for Older Adults1

“…This result supports Hypothesis 5 and is consistent with the literature on the effects of user choice on intrinsic motivation [41], [42]. Fig.…”

“…The relatively mixed condition preferences among participants, or rather the lack of clear preference for the choice condition, seem somewhat counterintuitive given the positive effect that choice and user autonomy have been shown to have on task-based enjoyment [41], [42]. One possible explanation for the mixed preferences may be that, since the robot's role in the interaction was that of an exercise instructor, some participants might have felt it was the robot's duty to determine the exercise regimen, and hence were comfortable relinquishing the choice of exercise games.…”

“…Studies have shown that tasks that support user autonomy and self-determination lead to increased intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, creativity, and other related variables among the participants [42], all of which are important for achieving task adherence and long-term behavior change. Self-determination, represented in the task in the form of choice of activity [41], choice of difficulty level [42], and choice of rewards [43], has been shown to either increase or be less detrimental to intrinsic motivation than similar task conditions that do not involve choice. In the context of our SAR exercise system, user choice is a very interesting research question and one that we investigated with a user study to test the role of choice in the exercise scenario.…”

“…As discussed in Section III, allowing the user to gain a sense of self-determination within a task, for example from choice of activity, has been shown to increase or be less detrimental to intrinsic motivation when compared to similar task conditions that do not involve choice [41], [42]. To investigate the role of choice and user autonomy in influencing user intrinsic motivation in the robot exercise system, as well as to further test and validate the effectiveness of our system, we conducted a second user study with elderly participants.…”

On the perpetuation of ignorance: System dependence, system justification, and the motivated avoidance of sociopolitical information.

“…Indeed, survey data show that 88% of adult respondents thought it was very important for politicians to have a good understanding of economics, whereas only 62% thought the same about average citizens (National Council on Economic Education, 2005). Therefore, despite an increase in freedoms available to us, we are increasingly dependent on institutions and other people (Schwartz, 1994), and are willing to give up personal control to experts in the hopes that they can make better decisions for us (de Charms, 1968;Deci & Ryan, 1985;Iyengar & Lepper, 2000;Langer & Rodin, 1976;Lepper, 1983;Malone & Lepper, 1987;Schulz, 1976;Taylor, 1989;Zuckerman, Porac, Lathin, Smith, & Deci, 1978).…”