(From Yanowotch, Murray, ed. Soviet Work Attitudes. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1979.)
"The American researcher was interested in the question of the impact of "extrinsic reinforcements" on "intrinsically motivated" behavior. He asked a group of college students to work on "an intrinsically interesting task "– a puzzle consisting of seven three-dimensional pieces. The students were requested "to use the pieces to reproduce several configurations that were outlined on paper." The subjects of the experiment were divided into two groups, one of which was paid for successful solutions of the tasks, while the other was not. When the assigned period for solving the puzzles was over, the two groups were placed in circumstances where they were "free to do what [they] wished: read magazines, solve more puzzles, or whatever." The researcher's reasoning was that the students were intrinsically motivated if they continued to work on the puzzles when the assigned period for solving them had ended. The additional time spent on the puzzles was the measure of intrinsic motivation. Here is the American researcher's summary of this stage of the experiment (accurately paraphrased in the Soviet article): "Money made a difference. Those students whom we had paid spent significantly less time with the puzzles when they were alone later than did those who had done the puzzles for free. Once they got money for doing a fun game, their intrinsic motivation decreased; to an extent they had become dependent on the external reward (Yanowitch 1985:92-93)."
The conclusion: "We must create more activities that are inherently interesting and gratifying, and we must not use extrinsic rewards in a way that will lower the interest level of those activates that are intrinsically motivated (:93)."
