The impact of enactive exploration on intrinsic motivation, strategy, and performance in electronic search

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of enactive exploration on intrinsic motivation, strategy, and performance on an electronic search task. Enactive exploration includes elements of self-guided exploration and error management, which participants in the experimental condition rr ere encouraged to utilise during the practice segment of a training programme. Participants in the comparison condition received the same basic training and completed the same practice segment without the enactive exploration intervention. Enactive exploration produced higher intrinsic motivation than the comparison condition but did not influence other self-regulatory factors. Participants trained in the enactive exploration mode also had higher performance levels on transfer tasks performed under stringent performance expectations. Post-training self-efficacy and satisfaction had a positive influence on the quality of strategies used on the transfer tasks but intrinsic motivation was negatively related to strategy quality. The ways in which enactive exploration instructions influence intrinsic motivation and the effects of intrinsic motivation on strategy and performance on complex tasks are discussed.