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Theories of willpower affect sustained learning.


ABSTRACT: Building cognitive abilities often requires sustained engagement with effortful tasks. We demonstrate that beliefs about willpower-whether willpower is viewed as a limited or non-limited resource-impact sustained learning on a strenuous mental task. As predicted, beliefs about willpower did not affect accuracy or improvement during the initial phases of learning; however, participants who were led to view willpower as non-limited showed greater sustained learning over the full duration of the task. These findings highlight the interactive nature of motivational and cognitive processes: motivational factors can substantially affect people's ability to recruit their cognitive resources to sustain learning over time.

SUBMITTER: Miller EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3382137 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Theories of willpower affect sustained learning.

Miller Eric M EM   Walton Gregory M GM   Dweck Carol S CS   Job Veronika V   Trzesniewski Kali H KH   McClure Samuel M SM  

PloS one 20120622 6


Building cognitive abilities often requires sustained engagement with effortful tasks. We demonstrate that beliefs about willpower-whether willpower is viewed as a limited or non-limited resource-impact sustained learning on a strenuous mental task. As predicted, beliefs about willpower did not affect accuracy or improvement during the initial phases of learning; however, participants who were led to view willpower as non-limited showed greater sustained learning over the full duration of the ta  ...[more]

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