{"id":14589,"date":"2022-11-22T07:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T15:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=14589"},"modified":"2022-11-21T04:22:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T12:22:06","slug":"method-or-motivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2022\/11\/22\/method-or-motivation\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Matters More: Method or Motivation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the previous essay<\/a> in this series, I complained about how we were never taught how learning works. As a result, we often guess at which methods to use when studying. Sometimes, we guess badly.<\/p>\n

To illustrate, here\u2019s a question for you: when studying for a test, which matters more, the method you use, or how motivated you are to learn the material?<\/p>\n

That question is a bit vague, so let\u2019s make it more concrete. Suppose I read out loud to you a list of words. Now imagine I gave you one of two techniques to use: hearing each word and asking whether it contained the letter \u201ce\u201d or asking whether the word felt pleasant or not.<\/p>\n

Now suppose I tested you under two conditions: in one condition I told you that immediately after I read the words, I’d test how many you remembered. In the other condition, I didn’t tell you about the test at all, I merely asked you to go through the two different procedures while hearing the words.<\/p>\n

Given the two conditions: different methods for learning or different amounts of motivation to study, which do you think made a bigger difference on test performance?<\/p>\n

The answer may be surprising<\/a>: only the method mattered, motivation didn\u2019t matter much at all.<\/p>\n

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Why We Deceive Ourselves About What Works When Learning<\/h2>\n
\nListen to this article<\/small>
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