More Cost, but Better Performance? Unexpected Effects of a Cost-Focused Intervention in College Biology

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Motivation in Education SIG Poster Session: Contextual Factors, Teacher Motivation, and Motivational Interventions (San Diego)

Abstract

The present study tested whether an intervention could enhance students’ academic performance by reducing their perceptions of cost. College biology students (N = 147) were randomly assigned to complete two sessions of an intervention or control condition and reported perceived cost and competence-related beliefs both immediately and at the end of the semester. The intervention promoted students’ exam scores as predicted, but compared to the control condition it actually increased perceptions of cost. However, cost did not predict exam performance in the intervention condition, whereas it did in the control condition. Results suggest that the intervention may have normalized reporting about cost in a way that helped students, as opposed to making cost more salient in a negative way.

Authors

• Emily Quinn Rosenzweig, University of Georgia

• Yuchen Song, University of Georgia - Athens

• Shannon Clark, University of Georgia