Fridkin, Lisa;
Hurry, Jane;
(2025)
The effects of manipulating choice on children’s enjoyment and performance in a reading task.
Current Psychology
10.1007/s12144-025-07685-3.
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Abstract
This study investigates effects of choice in a reading comprehension task. It hypothesises that choice will act as a trigger for situational interest, impacting engagement with the reading text, and will therefore improve children’s performance in a reading comprehension task, and promote higher levels of enjoyment for that task. Participants were 110 Grade 3 pupils (61 boys, 49 girls). Reading comprehension performance and task enjoyment were measured in a cross-over, repeated measures design where children were either allocated a short story or offered a perceived choice of story to read. In fact, all children read the same story in each condition. Reading comprehension scores and post-test reported enjoyment scores were gathered and analysed. Choice was found to significantly affect comprehension scores (Cohen’s d = 0.52) and reported task enjoyment (Cohen’s d = 0.23), indicating that choice impacts engagement with a reading text. Effects did not vary by gender or ability. Reading motivation promoted by situational interest may play an important role in reading comprehension and choice may be an effective trigger for situational interest in a reading task and a powerful intrinsic motivator. Situational interest, triggered by choice, may be effective in raising enjoyment levels for a reading task.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The effects of manipulating choice on children’s enjoyment and performance in a reading task |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s12144-025-07685-3 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-07685-3 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Situational interest, Intrinsic motivation, Reading performance, Enjoyment, Choice |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10206209 |
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