Determinants of learning and performance in an associative memory/substitution task: Task constraints, individual differences, volition, and motivation.

The way that cognitive abilities, learning task characteristics, and motivational and volitional processes combine to explain individual differences in performance and learning was investigated. A substitution task was studied over practice, and it was discovered that students used two different strategies: a learning strategy focused on memorization and a performance strategy in which students persisted in scanning items. Five experiments investigated strategy differences and the ability and motivational correlates of task performance