Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction*

TLDR

Previous theories of intrinsic motivation and studies of highly motivating computer games are reviewed, highlighting that these studies focus on fun rather than educational aspects. The authors develop a rudimentary theory of intrinsically motivating instruction comprising challenge, fantasy, and curiosity, hypothesizing that challenge relies on uncertain outcomes, fantasy offers cognitive and emotional benefits, and curiosity is stimulated by perceived gaps in knowledge. The theory proposes mechanisms such as variable difficulty, multiple level goals, hidden information, and randomness to create uncertain outcomes for challenge, uses fantasy to provide cognitive and emotional benefits, and stimulates cognitive curiosity by highlighting incomplete or inconsistent knowledge structures.

Abstract

First, a number of previous theories of intrinsic motivation are reviewed. Then, several studies of highly motivating computer games are described. These studies focus on what makes the games fun, not on what makes them educational. Finally, with this background, a rudimentary theory of intrinsically motivating instruction is developed, based on three categories: challenge, fantasy, and curiosity. Challenge is hypothesized to depend on goals with uncertain outcomes. Several ways of making outcomes uncertain are discussed, including variable difficulty level, multiple level goals, hidden information, and randomness. Fantasy is claimed to have both cognitive and emotional advantages in designing instructional environments. A distinction is made between extrinsic fantasies that depend only weakly on the skill used in a game, and intrinsic fantasies that are intimately related to the use of the skill. Curiosity is separated into sensory and cognitive components, and it is suggested that cognitive curiosity can be aroused by making learners believe their knowledge structures are incomplete, inconsistent, or unparsimonious.