Abstract

COGNITION AND INSTRUCTION, 1988, 5(4), 289-309 Copyright o 1988, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Motivational Considerations in the Study of Instruction Mark R. Lepper Stan ford University "But, after all, brains are not the best things in the world," [said the Tin Woodman]. "Have you any?" enquired the Scarecrow. "No, my head is quite empty," answered the Woodman; "but once I had brains and a heart. . . [and] . . . having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart." -Baum (1900/1960, p. 58) In Frank Baum's classic fable, The Wizard of Oz, the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow served as symbols-the one without a heart, the other without a brain-of the distinction between mind and body, between affect and cognition, that has been a central theme in Western thought since Descartes. Affairs of the mind and affairs of the heart, in the Western philosophical tradition, involve different systems, follow different rules, and serve different functions. During the past century, it has fallen in part to psychologists to confront the implications of this separation of these two aspects of human experience and to consider the ways in which these systems might interact (cf. James, 1890; Wundt, 1907).