Subjects expected to perform an easy or moderately difficult memory task with the opportunity to earn a high or low chance of avoiding an aversive reading exercise if they succeeded. As predicted on the basis of a recent theory of motivation, ratings of how aversive the reading exercise would be were higher for subjects assigned the difficult memory task than for subjects assigned the easy memory task when the chance of avoidance was high, but were relatively low in both task conditions when the chance of avoidance was low.
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