How do thoughts change our motivation and emotions?

For 4.5-5-year-olds and 8-9-year-olds who speak English

In this session, your child will hear two stories about thoughts, motivation, and emotions. Each story features child characters who have different perspectives about the same event. After listening to each story, your child will be asked questions about how the characters might feel or what they might want, based on their thoughts. After the stories, your child will solve two puzzles and choose how they would help themselves stay motivated.

Many studies have explored how parents and teachers motivate children, but less is known about how children themselves understand motivation or their ability to self-motivate. Our previous research suggests that children may recognize that one's thoughts can influence motivation. In this study, we aim to further investigate whether children understand that different types of thoughts can shape motivation and emotions in distinct ways. Additionally, we are interested in how children think about strategies for enhancing their own motivation to persist in a challenging task.

20 minutes

We will send you a $5 Amazon gift card (used on Amazon US only) after your participation within one week. To be eligible for this compensation, your child needs to fit our participation criteria (e.g., age range, speaking English), and the child’s legal guardian needs to provide a valid consent for participation. Children must be visible in the consent video in order to be eligible. Additionally, the child must not have completed this study before.