The importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for measuring IQ

Lex Borghans, Huub Meijers and Bas ter Weel

No 2013-006, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: This research provides an economic model of the way people behave during an IQ test. We distinguish a technology that describes how time investment improves performance from preferences that determine how much time people invest in each question. We disentangle these two elements empirically using data from a laboratory experiment. The main findings are that both intrinsic (questions that people like to work on) and extrinsic motivation (incentive payments) increase time investments and as a result performance. The presence of incentive payments seems to be more important than the size of the reward. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations turn out to be complements.

Keywords: incentives; cognitive test scores (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J20 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-neu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for measuring IQ (2013)
Working Paper: The importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for measuring IQ (2013)
Working Paper: The Importance of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation for Measuring IQ (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:unumer:2013006

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