Difficulty and Deviation. High Task Failure Encourages Alternative Approaches to Learning

Task difficulty is an important factor in the acquisition of a novel motor skill. When presented with challenging tasks, participants may control task difficulty by deviating from mandated instructions to allow success within a self-selected bandwidth. To investigate the levels of task difficulty at which such deviations may occur, the current study used an on-screen target interception task which gradually increased in difficulty by lowering the size of the intercepting racquet. Measures of intrinsic motivation and cognitive effort were collected to examine the underlying psychological factors. Increases in difficulty provoked a tactical approach from participants where they did not attempt to intercept all targets as instructed. This behaviour was not disclosed when participants were given the opportunity to do so; potential reasons for this are discussed. Increases in task difficulty saw a lowering of intrinsic motivation, but a concurrent rise in cognitive effort, suggesting that task engagement was high despite lowering intrinsic motivation. The results demonstrate that expected experimental results are not necessarily arrived at by the expected means, and that methods of measurement and analysis should account for actual participant behaviour rather than that which is instructed, presumed, or predicted by whichever model or theory is under scrutiny.