Mathewson's Model of Attitude Influence Upon Reading and Learning to Read (1994)
INTENTION TO READ: commitment to a plan for achieving one or more reading purposes at a more or less specified time in the future (acts as mediator between attitude and reading: attitude towards reading gives rise to an intention to read, which then leads to reading itself.)
MOTIVATION: development of conditions promoting intention to read.
The three conditions that promote intention to read are:
I. ATTITUDE, which is comprised of three components:
- Evaluation (cognitive component, e.g. evaluations of content and purpose)
- Feeling (affective component, e.g. , feelings about engaging in a particular kind of reading)
- Action readiness (conative component, e.g. for initiating or sustaining reading activity)
- Attitude is affected by
- PERSUASION
- CENTRAL-ROUTE persuasion: relies on cognitive processing of the content of a persuasive communication (e.g. teacher tries to persuade students to read a poem because it is about parent-child relationships)
- PERIPHERAL ROUTE persuasion: simple cues evoking feelings (e.g. attractive book cover)
- CORNERSTONE CONCEPTS
- VALUES
- GOALS
- SELF-CONCEPTS ("the self-concept includes within its scope a diverse collection of images and cognitions about the self- the good selves (the ones we remember fondly), the bad selves (the ones we would like to forget), the hoped for selves, the feared selves, the not-me selves, and the ideal selves." [Cantor et al, 1986]) (The extent to which knowledge gained from the reading reinforces either present or possible self-concepts is positively related to attitude toward further reading; even negative self-concepts may result in positive attitudes toward reading if the reading holds promise of eliminating that negative self-concept.)
II. EXTERNAL MOTIVATORS (have less intrinsic relationship to reading than attitude)
- Incentives - offer personally desirable objectives (e.g. good grades, success in life, prizes)
- Purposes (e.g. reading to find out how a character solves a problem)
- Norms and settings - behavioral expectations provided by other people (e.g. people who have no intrinsic motivation to read may pick up a book anyway at a library.)
III. INTERNAL EMOTIONAL STATES (emotions may either distract one from focusing attention on meaning making or support this process)
References
Canter et al, 1986. On motivation and the self-concept.