The Effect of Motivation on Cognitive Rules When Deciding Whether to Adhere to a Prescription of Adapted Physical Activity

The objective of the present study was to test the impact of the motivational state on the information integration process, as understood through information integration theory and reversal theory. Participants were confronted with four sets of 12 cards built according to a within-subject design and three factors: Reimbursement, Medical Follow-up, and the Environment. Each set of cards corresponded to one of four somatic metamotivational states: telic, paratelic, conformist, or negativistic. For each card, the participants indicated their degree of adherence to an adapted physical activity program. Four separate repeated-measures analyses of variance were conducted on the data from each motivational condition. The effect of motivation on judgment appears to be contingent upon the factors and the pair of metamotivational states. Our investigation extended previous research on the effect of purposiveness on judgment. Our novel results open up a vast field for further fundamental research in several areas of social cognition.