Past academic achievement contributes to university students' autonomous motivation (AM) which is later moderated by implicit motivation and working memory: A Bayesian replication of the explicit-implicit model of AM

In this study, we sought to investigate two lingering issues about the association between autonomous motivation (AM) and academic achievement. On the one hand, past academic achievements are most certainly important to the development of future AM, but the reciprocal nature of this association has been largely ignored in the literature. On the other hand, assessments of dispositional AM through self-reported methodology may not fully capture the internalization process of AM. Recently, it was proposed that adopting a dual-process perspective over AM could enable of more precise observation of internalization (explicit implicit model of AM; Author, 2017). We sought to replicate the results of this model which contends that AM is mostly efficient when accompanied in synergy with high levels of implicit AM and working memory capacity. During a semester, 258 university students completed a self-report measure, a lexical decision task of AM and working memory tasks. Semester GPA was used as the main dependent variable and, in order to explore reciprocal mechanisms, admission GPA was used as an indicator of past academic achievement. A Bayesian moderated mediation model was estimated and revealed a small significant reciprocal effect of explicit AM and academic achievement. The Bayesian model replicated the results of Author (2017), thus strengthening the position of adopting a dual-process perspective of AM. Implications for SDT are further discussed.
Source: Learning and Individual Differences - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research