Self-reinforcement in mildly mentally retarded adults: effects of motivational orientation and instructional demand.

The effects of external (environmental) and internal (cognitive) self-influences of self-regulatory behaviour were investigated in 60 mildly mentally retarded adults. External conditions were three demand conditions (stringent, variable, and lenient). The 'internal' variable was an individual differences one, motivational orientation: one-half of the subjects were relatively intrinsically motivated and the other half were relatively extrinsically motivated. Both external and internal self-influences affected performance on a motor/attention task. Subjects in the stringent-demand condition worked harder, set higher performance standards and arranged leaner schedules of self-reinforcement than did subjects in the lenient demand condition. Intrinsically motivated subjects worked harder, set higher performance standards, and arranged leaner schedules of self-reinforcement than did extrinsically motivated subjects over all demand conditions. Furthermore, intrinsically motivated subjects chose higher performance standards than had been demonstrated to them in the lenient-demand condition, and also arranged leaner schedules of self reinforcement over all demand conditions than had been demonstrated to them, compared to extrinsically motivated subjects. Internal self-system characteristics appear to interact reciprocally with external demand characteristics to reveal substantial individual differences in patterns of self-reward behaviour.