Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Goal-specificity has been found to affect performance: In difficult tasks, specific goals may be detrimental for learning. Locke and Latham (1990) claimed that goal-specificity has an impact on performance via motivation. Vollmeyer and Rheinberg's (1998) cognitive-motivational process model proposed that cognitive and motivational processes interact. Therefore, we investigated if goal-specificity may change the nature of this interaction, by trying to fit different structural equations models for groups given a specific goal (SG) or a nonspecific goal (NSG). Before beginning a complex dynamic task, the SG group was given a specific goal to reach, but the NSG group only received a goal when they had to transfer their knowledge. We found that the SG group learnt less and had lower motivation during learning. Contrary to earlier claims, there was no direct effect of goal-specificity on initial motivation, but it did alter the interaction between strategies and motivation during learning. The empirical model for the SG group showed a strong effect of initial motivation on the learning process and goal-directed strategies were effective. For the NSG group motivation during the task and systematic strategies were important.