Motivating instructions increases children’s sensory sensitivity

AimTo determine the impact of competitive and cooperative instructions on children’s motivation and performance of sensory tests.Subjects and methodsGerman children (n = 202; 101 girls, 101 boys, 6–9 year-olds) participated in liking and similarity tests after giving either (1) competitive: “I want to see if you can do it better than others”, (2) cooperative: “Would you like to help me”, (3) competitive–cooperative: “Would you like to help me to be better than the other group”, or (4) neutral instructions: “Could you perform this test”. Furthermore, they were asked questions about their motivation.ResultsCompetitive–cooperative instructions were associated high intrinsic motivation (p < 0.05) and better ability to discriminate between different samples in terms of liking, than when other instructions were given. Competitive instructions were associated with a lower performance of the similarity test (p < 0.05). The more children enjoyed the task the better they were able to perform the similarity test (p < 0.05).ConclusionGerman children’s sensory sensitivity can be increase by giving competitive–cooperative instructions. This is likely to be associated with a high intrinsic motivation.