On the cued activation of situational motivation

We examined the hypothesis that situational (or state) motivation can generalize from one situation to another via activation by associated cues. In an experimental setting, a neutral cue (a computer tone sequence) was paired repeatedly with controlling feedback. We then assessed the effect of presenting this conditioned cue during a subsequent task on participants' motivation for that novel task. In two studies we found evidence that cued activation of controlledness significantly undermined participants' self-determined motivation toward this subsequent task. These findings demonstrate that subtle cues, including contextual primes, can influence people's motivational state.