Cognitive processing

When people believe that they will be reinforced for learning something, they are more likely to pay much more attention to it and mentally process it in an effective manner. On the other hand, when we do not expect to be reinforced for learning it, we are less likely to think about it, much less mentally process it in an effective fashion. Here is an example of cognitive processing: 1. Your social science teacher informs the class, "Chapter's 1–3 will not be on the test, but I ask you to please read it carefully anyway." How carefully do you think you will read chapters 1–3? Will you even read it at all? 2. The next week, you social science teacher announces, "I misinformed you last week. Most of what you will be tested on this week will be from chapters 1–3." Now how does this effect your desire to read chapter's 1–3? When student's do not expect to be reinforced for reading from their social science text book, they may not read it thoroughly, perhaps they think they have many other things to do. The students who figure out that getting a good grade in their social science class depends on how carefully and thoroughly they read each and every chapter, will be more apt to reading the material slowly and processing it, even if it was not going to be tested on. (citation: Ormrod, Jeanne. Education Psychology-Developing Learners. Merrill Prentice Hall: 2003. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.)