Achievement motivation and learning

Includes bibliographical references (pages 34- 36)This stuqy investigated the relationship between\ud achievement motivation and learning in young children.\ud The major hypotheses of the study are that children\ud high in need achievement learn at a faster rate than\ud those low and that the rate of learning is determined\ud by an expectancy fostered during the child's initial\ud experience with the task. The results substantiated the hypotheses about the effects of expectation of success on rate of learning. The expected difference due to achievement\ud motivation category was not found although the results\ud were consistently in the expected direction. It is\ud suggested that this was due to confounding of the need\ud for achievement with the need to avoid failure. This\ud confounding may have ??been due to the nature of the\ud measuring instrument used or it may be in the nature\ud of the characteristic in children of this age. An interesting unexpected phenomena occurred.\ud A significant number of children who were in the high\ud N-achievement group failed to learn the task. These\ud children were in the expectation groups hypothesized to\ud do poorest. Explanations based on the stability of the achievement motive and its relationship to fear of failure\ud in children was suggested. Recommendations for future\ud research based on these findings were given