motivation » Genius On Hold

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Dec 202011

Motivation is a bit of a hot-button issue for both teachers and game designers, mainly because it’s so necessary for continued success but so difficult to design for. There are two types of education – extrinsic and intrinsic.

Extrinsic motivation, like it sounds, is a motivating force that comes from outside of the person. Stickers, gold stars, and grades are great examples of this from teaching. Game design has really embraced badges, achievements, and gear to motivate players to continue the game. Generally speaking, extrinsic motivation is showy, but otherwise useless, and when the goodies stop coming, whatever behavior was being motivated by the goodies trickles off to a stop. Think about the misbehaving child who cleans up his act once he’s promised some sort of treat. More often than not, once the treat has been acquired, the bad behavior is back because the child has no reason or desire to continue being good. (The savvier misbehaving child also quickly figures out that bad behavior will get him more treats than good behavior if the situation isn’t handled correctly…which makes things fun when different people are handling the child.) It’s the same with gamers. If the gamer has become attached to the achievements, once they’re done earning them they’re also done with the game.

Intrinsic motivation comes from within the person. It’s the child who persistently practices cartwheels until she gets them right because she wants to be able to do them. It’s the gamer who makes a point of exploring a game map from one end of the other because they’re having fun exploring new places. The intrinsically motivated person is more likely to become engaged and to return to an activity because they enjoy it or it fulfills a goal they personally set for themselves. It’s also harder to design for because it’s dependent on the person herself rather than any reward the teacher or game designer can set out.

Generally, it’s agreed, both in education and game design, that intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation because those who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to return, to push themselves to accomplish more.

Gold Stars vs Curiosity

learning

Oct 062011

I’d been playing Kinect Adventures for a couple of levels when I decided to get a little crazy during one of my videos. I started jumping around, causing my shark in the video to jump, thereby unlocking an achievement for jumping the shark. Heh. I was so amused that I tried to do other “weird” things during later videos to see if I could unlock anything else. Sadly, the most I accomplished was confusing my dancing queens when I twirled. The funny thing is, I’d been earning more fully stitched badges after every mini-game, but I barely noticed them. I was far more interested in trying to find achievements tucked away in the videos.

That’s the difference between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. When we are rewarded for doing the minimum, then we only do the minimum. And if we aren’t rewarded for doing that minimum, then we complain about how lame the activity is for not giving us that expected gold star. Needing that outside reward is being extrinsically motivated, and that mechanism is starting to show up in more games and marketing campaigns. Companies have decided that we’re more likely to be loyal and persistent if we’re given government positions and badges, even when working to acquire those rewards ultimately causes the game or campaign to become less fun.

When we do something because we’re working toward a personal goal, we’re intrinsically motivated. Working toward a personal goal covers a lot of ground. The student who researches a favorite topic or one that’s recently piqued her curiosity is intrinsically motivated. The student who’s trying to fill in an entire scorecard of skills because she wants to rather than doing just what’s assigned is intrinsically motivated. The person who wants to learn a specific cooking style and makes a variety of dishes to learn the techniques is intrinsically motivated.

The real difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is the difference between “I’ll only do this weird, random task if you give me something I only sort of want” and “That was interesting. Can we do it again?” It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that intrinsic motivation is more successful at keeping people interested because it’s genuinely engaging them.