6.3 Goals

Question 1

Goals in “Touching the Void”

Answer 1

Keep in mind:
- Goals are well modelled by the VE, unlike habits
- 4 Dimensions of a good goal:
Easy vs difficult (ideal)
Achievable (ideal) vs impossible
Long term vs short term (ideal)
Specific (ideal) vs unspecific

Took 3 days to get back to camp.
He timed himself by reaching landmark in 30 minutes. These are very short term goals. He is not focused on the camp. Landmarks give feedback of progress

What is Joe’s long term goal? Getting back to camp
What is Joe’s short term goal? Landmarks
Which one has a direct impact on his situation? Short term

Question 2

Goals are directive

Answer 2

Goals direct attention and effort towards goal relevant activities and away from anything else

Study: Students with specific learning goals paid attention to and learned goal relevant prose passages better than the goal-irrelevant passages

Study: People who were given feedback on driving tasks improved performance on the dimensions for which they had goals, but not on other dimensions

Question 3

Goals energize

Answer 3

Goals increase effort, and difficult goals lead to greater effort than easier goals

Question 4

Goals prolong effort

Answer 4

Goals prolong effort and affect persistence.

When participants are allowed to control the time they spend on a task, difficult goals increase the length of time of work

What is the difference between energising and prolonging effort? Energize is increase effort, prolonging makes effort go a longer way

Trade off between length and intensity of effort

• Work faster and more intensely for a short period
• Work slower and less intensely for longer

Question 5

Goals guide the work

Answer 5

Goals automatically use knowledge and skills they have already acquired when it is relevant to achieve the goal

If the goal does not use the skills they have, people adapt other skills from related contexts to it

If the task is completely new, they plan for it and develop strategies that allow them to succeed

Summary:

• Goals are like landmarks
• Landmarks are useful to guide and orient the work
• Landmarks can lead to discover task-specific knowledge or techniques

Go back to Joe’s text and identify passages that leverage these benefits

Question 6

Uninterested Math Students study

Answer 6

Group of children uninterested and not doing well in Maths
Self-directed learning practice
Looked at performance + self-efficacy + interest

Question:

Protocol: 
Pre-test | Pre SE (self-efficacy)
Self-directed training (4 conditions)
Post1 SE | post test | Post2 SE
Interest: Free choice activities

Conditions: 
Control (no training)
No goals
Long-term goals
Short-term and long-term goals

Measuring:

Conclusion: Review slide
Best to worst Performance:
Short term long term
No goals
Long term
Control

Best to worst SE:
Short term long term
No goals
Long term (pre to post 1 increase, post 1 to post 2 decrease)
Control (decrease both times)

Best to worst Interest:
Short term long term
No goals
Control 
Long term (counter productive to self-efficacy)

Question 7

Urging people to do their best

Answer 7

Specific and difficult goals lead to higher performance than urging people to do their best
When people are asked to do their best, they do not do so

Why is it like this? Imagine someone giving you such advice

Do-your-best goals have no external reference. Very vague
No clear sense of what best is
Goals should be specific as possible, but also define a clear level of difficult

Specificity is not sufficient

Question 8

Goal commitment

Answer 8

The relation between setting goals and improved performance is strongest when people are commuted to their goals. Commitments especially important when goals are difficult and challenging

Can we use the VE to understand why goal commitments is particularly important when the goals are difficult and challenging? Requires higher effort (negative reward) and lower chance of success

2 types of factors facilitate goal commitment:

• Believing that achieving the goal is important (higher positive reward)
• Believing that the goal is achievable (Higher pS self-efficacy)

Goal importance “hacks”:
- Public commitment
- Rationale (understand why it’s important)
- Participatory (everyone has a sense of ownership)
- Self-directed
Relation here with self-determination theory

Goals and self-efficacy:

• Get adequate training to increase mastery
• role modelling
• Persuasive communication

Question 9

Goals and the Value Equation

Answer 9

Review graph

Multiple short term goals spike 3 times, rather than the single long term goal

With procrastination, we work on short term goals 3 times, rather than the single long term goal

This shows what can happen when we break a single long term goal into multiple short term goals

In terms of the VE and setting goals, what are the potential benefits of breaking a task in to several sub tasks?
Create new rewards. Delays are shorter, choose pS by gauging how difficult goal is