How sleep quality moderates the effect of extrinsic rewards on the learning motivation

Abstract

Abstract A growing body of studies have been done to examine the effect of extrinsic rewards on students’ learning motivation. Evidence suggests that the effect of extrinsic rewards could be influenced by factors including individuals’ reward sensitivity. The literature to date has examined the association between poor sleep quality and reward insensitivity in the youths, provided that “grades” is common perceived as a kind of extrinsic rewards, the current aimed to examine the association between university students’ sleep quality and the effect of grades. The project included two studies. Study 1was done to examine the association between students’ sleep quality and grade sensitivity. Study 2 was done to examine whether sleep quality moderates the effect of grades on learning motivation. The results of the current studies suggested that students’ sleep quality is positively correlated with their grade sensitivity, The results also suggested that students’ sleep quality moderates the effect of grades on students’ extrinsic motivation. Limitations of the current studies were discussed with possible improvements suggested. Based on current findings, suggestions for the conduct of further studies in this area were also discussed in the paper.