Need for cognition and desire for control as moderators of extrinsic reward effects : a person X situation approach to the study of intrinsic motivation.

Seventy-four Ss in extrinsic-reward or no-reward conditions completed a brainstorming task and then were left alone with the option to engage in additional versions of this task. If the need for Cognition (NFC) Scale taps intrinsic motivation for effortful cognition, the optional task engagement of high-NFC Ss, but not low-NFC Ss should be undermined by extrinsic reward. Results confirmed this hypothesis, but regression analyses showed that NFC scores' moderation of reward effects was due to their covariation with scores on J.M. Burger and H.M. Cooper's (1979) Desire for Control Scale. The data suggest that (a) NFC involves intrinsic motivation for effortful cognitive processing, (b) NFC may predict such processing mainly in contexts with minimal extrinsic incentives for processing, and (c) control motivation may be related causally both to extrinsic undermining effects and to individual differences in NFC.