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Classical Conditioning: Intrinsic Motivation Class Activity

Jasmine Owens
November 16, 2015
Professor Stansbury

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Intrinsic Motivation: Classical Conditioning Activity

Have you ever wondered why we are motivated to do certain things rather than others?
The answer to that is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is performing an activity because
you simply like it. Motivation is such a big part of everyones lives, and we are intrinsically
motivated in some way to do everyday tasks. With this being said, one of the settings that
students typically find to be less intrinsically motivating is being in a classroom. So how do we
get students motivated to learn? In Malones study on intrinsic motivation, he gives us three
main categories that motivate us, specifically in game play. The three categories include
curiosity, challenge, and fantasy. In Csikszentmihalyis study of flow, he gives us reasoning as to
why some tasks are easier to obtain. Using these three categories and Csikszentmihalyi definition
of flow, I will create a class activity discussing classical conditioning.
Classical Conditioning:
To begin, I will give some background information on classical conditioning. The
definition of classical conditioning the book we use in class gives is a formerly neutral stimulus
gains the ability to elicit a response from an organism because it has been associated with some
other stimulus that reliably elicited the response in the past (Petri and Govern, 2013). With this
being said there are several different stimulus that are associated with this form of conditioning.
There is the neutral stimulus, which does not elicit any response before the pairing of the
conditioned response. Next there is the unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response,
which are both unlearned. Therefore, the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response are
learned once paired with the neutral stimulus. The most famous study for this research is Pavlov
and his dogs. Pavlov used dogs and conditioned them to salivate to the sound of a bell. In his
research the UCS is the meat powder, the UCR is the salvation to the meat powder, the CS is the

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bell and the CR is the salvation to the bell. According to Petri and Govern (2013), neutral
stimuli in our environment can come to have motivational influences on our behavior if they are
paired with UCSs that are strongly motivational (Petri & Govern, 2013). Therefore, classical
conditioning can be used to motivate individuals, if it is paired with the right stimuli.
Intrinsic Motivation/ Flow:
To understand how to create a class activity that is motivating, I will talk about Malones
study on intrinsic motivation as well as Csikszentmihalyi study on flow. Motivating a class is a
challenging task in itself, but Csikszentmihalyis study on flow and Malones study on games
gives us insight on how to intrinsically motivate an individual. In Csikszentmihalyi study he
researched why activities are so enjoyable, and from this question he came up with the concept
of flow. His definition of flow is Flow denotes the wholistic sensation present when we act with
total involvement (Csikszentmihalyi 1975). The idea of flow is when we lose ourselves in the
activity we are performing. In Malones study, he critiqued Csikszentmihalyi work on the
concept of flow. According to Malone, an activity is intrinsically motivating if you are doing the
activity for the sake of the activity and if there are no rewards involved (Malone 1984).
Challenge, curiosity, and fantasy are the three categories that motivate us to continue perform an
activity.
After conducting several experiments with game play, Malone found results on the three
categories. Challenge must have goals, uncertain outcomes, toys vs tools, and self- esteem. Goals
must be personal, easy and give feedback. The uncertain outcomes include variation in difficulty
level, hidden information, skills, and multiple level goals. Malones notion of toys vs tools is that
a game is intentionally made difficult, but a tool should be made to help make the task easier
(Malone 1984). Lastly, self- esteem is an important part of challenge because if a person

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succeeds in a difficult challenge, then they will feel good and continue to play to receive that
same emotion. The next category is fantasy. Fantasy should include intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation, appeal to your emotions and mind. Extrinsic motivation is where the fantasy depends
on the use of the skill, but not vice versa (Malone 1984). However, intrinsic motivation relies on
the skill and the fantasy. Lastly, fantasy should allow you to make connections in your mind as
well as appeal to your emotions. If you have an emotional tie with the game, the more likely you
are to play it. The last category Malone talked about is curiosity. Malone stated, Environments
can evoke a learners curiosity by providing an optimal level of informational complexity
(Malone 1984). The game should keep the player wanting to learn more or complete any
incomplete knowledge the gamer has. With knowing how each of these principles work, I will
apply these principles into the class activity I will conduct.
To continue, Csikszentmihalyi interviews with those who are involved in different
activities help us understand the principles of flow. There are six important elements to reaching
the optimal level of flow. The elements include, merging action and awareness, centering of
attention, loss of ego, control of action and environment, demands for action and clear feedback,
and autotelic nature of flow. Csikszentmihalyi describes merging action and awareness as being
aware of the actions you are performing, but not of the awareness itself (Csikszentmihalyi 1975).
Next there is centering of attention, which is just focusing on the activity itself. Then there is loss
of ego, which is when one does not have to convince themselves to play. To continue there is
control of action and environment. During this element, one feels in control in the activity they
are performing. According to Csikszentmihalyi(1975), rather than an active awareness of
mastery, it is more a condition of not being worried by the possibility of lack of control
(Csikszentmihalyi 1975). They are in control of their surroundings. Next is demands for action

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and clear feedback. When experiencing flow, one is not aware of the feedback because it has
become automatic. In an interview with a basketball player, he states that he plays his best games
by accidents and then is told he played a good game later on by his teammates. While in the state
of flow, we tend to forget about the demands of action and just perform. Lastly there is autotelic
nature of flow which is defined as not needing an extrinsic reward or goal (Csikszentmihalyi
1975). After learning about each of these elements, I will include these in the class activity to
motivate students.
Class Activity:
The class activity I have prepared for classical conditioning includes Malone and
Csikszentmihalyi principles of intrinsic motivation. I am going to have a slide show of different
colors (blue, red, green, orange). I will show the class these four colors. After they have seen the
four colors I will pair the blue slide with a loud noise. The class should be stunned by this and
show a certain reaction. I will go through the slides for about 5 minutes with each blue slide
having that noise. After the time is up, I will show the blue slide with no sound and the class
should still show the same reactions as if there were sound present. The neutral stimulus in this
case is the blue slide. The UCS is the blue slide, and the UCR is the reaction the students make.
The CS is the loud noise on the blue slide, while the CR is the students reactions even without
the presence of the noise. After going through this activity, I will then ask the students what the
NS, CS, CR, UCR, and UCS is. The 5 students who answer what the previous mentioned stimuli
are will receive candy.
This activity includes Malone and Csikszentmihalyi studies in different ways. First, this
activity has the three categories of Malones study. It shows challenge because the student has to
provide feedback and examine the conditions made in the activity. There is also a randomness to

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the colors I am showing, and the student do not know what color is coming next. With this being
said, this leads into curiosity because the students do not know which color slide will be shown
at what time. Also once I pair the sound with the slide, there will be the element of surprise once
they hear the noise. Next there is fantasy involved. The fantasy aspect involved in this activity is
cognitive. Once the activity is done, they then have to provide each of the different stimulus,
which should make the students to think about when we originally learned this in class. There is
also sound and visuals that make fantasy present in this activity. Next this activity compares to
Csikszentmihalyi elements of flow. This game will merge action and awareness because it is
simple and there are no distractions. Therefore the students should be able to focus on the game.
Also, I added the element of centering of attention because there is a reward at the end. If I were
to do this activity multiple times then that would motivate players to earn a piece of candy at the
end. My goal is to also have the class lose their sense of ego. To be so into the game and learning
about this condition, they lose track of time. Once the students have completed this task, I want
them to feel like they have accomplished something and feel in control. This element of the
activity would be Csikszentmihalyis element of control of action and environment. The last two
elements of Csikszentmihalyis study of flow I hope will be shown in the activity through them
wanting to play more and their needs for action and feedback to be automatic in the moment.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, to motivate students to learn in a classroom setting, you must first
understand the idea of intrinsic motivation. Using the three categories and Csikszentmihalyi
definition of flow, I included these in my class activity discussing classical conditioning.
Csikszentmihalyi and Malones studies give us important information regarding what is

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necessary to be intrinsically motivated. Motivation is a big part of everyones lives, it is good to

understand just what makes us intrinsically motivated.

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References
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1975). Play and Intrinsic Rewards. Journal of HumanisticPsychology,
15(3), 41-63.
Malone, T. W. (1984). Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. CognitiveScience,
5(4), 333-369
Petri, H., & Govern, J. (2013). Motivation: Theory, research and application (6th ed.).
Belmont,CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.