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Ma Q, Pei G, Meng L. Inverted U-Shaped Curvilinear Relationship between Challenge and One's Intrinsic Motivation: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials. Front Neurosci. 2017;11:131doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00131.
Ma, Q., Pei, G., & Meng, L. (2017). Inverted U-Shaped Curvilinear Relationship between Challenge and One's Intrinsic Motivation: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials. Frontiers in neuroscience, 11131. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2017.00131
Ma, Qingguo, et al. "Inverted U-Shaped Curvilinear Relationship between Challenge and One's Intrinsic Motivation: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials." Frontiers in neuroscience vol. 11 (2017): 131. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2017.00131
Ma Q, Pei G, Meng L. Inverted U-Shaped Curvilinear Relationship between Challenge and One's Intrinsic Motivation: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials. Front Neurosci. 2017 Mar 28;11:131. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00131. eCollection 2017. PMID: 28400712; PMCID: PMC5368271.
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Front Neurosci. 2017 Mar 28;11:131. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00131. eCollection 2017.

Inverted U-Shaped Curvilinear Relationship between Challenge and One's Intrinsic Motivation: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials.

Frontiers in neuroscience

Qingguo Ma, Guanxiong Pei, Liang Meng

Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neural Management Sciences, Zhejiang University of Technology Hangzhou, China.
  2. School of Management, Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China.
  3. School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies UniversityShanghai, China; Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Shanghai International Studies UniversityShanghai, China.

PMID: 28400712 PMCID: PMC5368271 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00131

Abstract

The balance between task demand and one's competence is critical for the maintenance of intrinsic motivation. According to Flow theory and Self-determination theory, optimal challenge gives rise to the maximum intrinsic motivation, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perceived challenge and one's intrinsic motivation is suggested. In order to provide direct experimental evidences for predictions of these theories, in this study, we employed the two-player StopWatch game that we previously designed, which made references to the game format of a badminton tournament. According to our manipulation, a male participant was defeated by the same-sex player paired with him (played by a well-trained confederate of the experimenter) in two matches, one with a wide margin (the complete defeat condition) and another with a narrow one (the near miss condition). Participants performed better and reported to enjoy the near miss match to a greater extent. Besides, an enlarged Stimulus-preceding negativity was elicited when participants were actively anticipating outcomes in the near miss condition, suggesting greater anticipatory attention toward the outcome and an enhanced intrinsic motivation to win. Thus, converging electrophysiological evidences from this study and our former study confirmed the inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perceived challenge and one's intrinsic motivation.

Keywords: event-related potentials; flow; intrinsic motivation; optimal challenge; self-determination theory; stimulus-preceding negativity

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