Studying the development of learning and task motivation

This commentary focuses on the papers by Nurmi and Aunola and by Spinath and Spinath. I discuss the difficulty in testing the hypothesis that ability self concepts influence developmental changes in learning and task motivation. I point to the following concerns: (1) the difficulty in conceptualizing and then measuring these concepts well; (2) the likely reciprocal relations among the key constructs (i.e., learning and task motivation, self-concepts of abilities, feelings of efficacy, and actual performance); (3) the difficulty in finding the “right” lagged time frame for testing the hypothesis; (4) the need to take into account the developmental changes associated with all of the relevant constructs in designing our studies; (5) the need to take into account individual differences in both the course of developmental changes on each of the relevant constructs and the nature of the relations among the constructs; and (6) the importance of person-centered approaches.