The Motivation for Cognitive Activities Questionnaire: scale development and validation in French and English

The current research aimed to develop and validate a novel measurement scale, the Motivation for Cognitive Activities Questionnaire (MCAQ), specifically designed to assess individuals’ motivation to engage in everyday cognitive activities. The MCAQ’s development was informed by expectancy-value theory and self-determination theory. Four studies were conducted to validate the MCAQ in both English and French languages. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a 32-item scale emerged, encompassing four subscales: perceived capacity, intrinsic motivation, identified motivation, and external motivation, as well as four additional general items assessing motivation for engaging in cognitive activity, taken broadly. The MCAQ demonstrated robust internal consistency and convergent validity, and satisfactory test–retest reliability. Moreover, the scale exhibited satisfactory predictive validity in relation to cognitive performance. The theoretical and practical utility of the MCAQ is discussed.