Psychology Study Notes: Motivation, Memory, and Learning

Motivation and the Overjustification Effect

• Intrinsic Motivation: Engaging in a behavior because one inherently enjoys the activity itself, without external rewards or pressure. It is self-driven enjoyment.

  • Examples: Reading a book for fun, listening to music because you like it, pursuing hobbies like playing video games purely for pleasure.
  • Contrast with Operant Conditioning: Operant conditioning (Skinner) focuses solely on extrinsic motivation (reinforcement and punishment) and struggles to account for intrinsically motivated behaviors.

• Extrinsic Motivation: Engaging in a behavior due to external factors, such as rewards, praise, or to avoid punishment.

• Overjustification Effect: This occurs when an expected extrinsic incentive (like money or rewards) decreases a person's intrinsic motivation to perform a task.

  • Mechanism: When rewards are introduced for an activity that was already enjoyable, the activity begins to be perceived as driven by the reward rather than the inherent enjoyment. The internal motivation shifts to an external one, altering one's mental frame.
  • Impact: It tends to reduce natural enjoyment for the activity, which is often counterintuitive, as people might expect rewards to increase enjoyment.
  • Examples:
    • A person who loves playing video games is then paid to play and review a new game. Their natural enjoyment may decrease because the primary motivation becomes the payment, not the game itself.
    • Someone who loves dogs and volunteers to walk them might experience reduced enjoyment if neighbors start paying them to walk their dogs.
    • Professional Athletes: Many athletes initially play sports purely for intrinsic enjoyment (e.g., in high school or college without pay). When they become professionals and earn significant salaries, the external rewards can diminish their pure love for the game relative to their unpaid counterparts. After retirement, an ex-pro might not enjoy playing the sport as much as a college teammate who never went pro and maintained an unadulterated passion for the game.

Instinctual Drift

• Definition: A phenomenon where an animal's innate, biological instincts (inborn tendencies, genetic predispositions) override and eventually replace previously learned behaviors acquired through operant conditioning.
  • Mechanism: Inborn instincts are stronger and eventually take over, making it appear as though the animal has