ScienceNot yet confirmed elsewhere1 publisher3 min readPublished
Intrinsic motivation tracks maths gains more closely than working memory in a Trondheim cohort study
NTNU researchers following Trondheim children from age 8 to 16 found intrinsic motivation, more than working memory, tracked who improved in maths. The data are observational, so the authors' case for building interest over memory training is untested.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- Working memory mostly reflected stable differences, and children with good working memory tended to keep it as they got older.
- Higher intrinsic motivation went with better maths two years later, and better maths went with higher motivation at the next testing round.
- Astrid Hoås Morin of NTNU led the paper, published in Contemporary Educational Psychology.
Why it matters
- decision Schools choosing between working-memory training and efforts to build interest in maths now have cohort evidence favouring interest, though the study never compared the two.
- constraint Because maths success also raises motivation, any classroom gain credited to a motivation programme will need a controlled trial to separate cause from feedback.
- capability Splitting stable from within-child variation lets researchers ask which factors move with a child's own progress, something a one-time comparison of classmates cannot answer.
Compare children with one another and working memory looks strong. In phys.org's account, the students who are sharpest at maths often have good working memory [7]. The Trondheim team asked a narrower question. Their analysis split each measure into a stable part, where a child stands relative to other children, and a changing part, how far that child moves from their own usual level between testing rounds [5]. The paper's title calls this disaggregating within-person and between-person effects [10].
Working memory fell mostly on the stable side. "Working memory is more about stable differences between students than about what drives further development," said Astrid Hoås Morin, the first author and an associate professor at NTNU's Department of Education and Lifelong Learning [6][9]. Children with good working memory tended to keep relatively good working memory later on [11].
Motivation moved with improvement. Intrinsic motivation here means working at maths because it feels interesting, fun or meaningful, and not for grades or praise [8]. Higher intrinsic motivation was associated with better maths performance two years later [1]. The link also ran the other way: children who did better in maths showed more intrinsic motivation at the next round of testing [1]. "We found that intrinsic motivation and math performance seem to reinforce each other over time," Hoås Morin said [2].
That two-way link is the reason to read the causal claim cautiously. If success feeds motivation, a correlation between the two cannot be credited to motivation alone. A within-person design does take fixed traits, such as a child's temperament, out of the comparison. It does not remove things that change over those years and could lift motivation and maths together, a new teacher for instance. The phys.org summary does not report the sample size or the size of any effect, so from it there is no way to say how much maths a given rise in motivation is associated with.
The advice to schools goes further than the data. "A more promising way to help students when the goal is to improve their mathematics skills seems to be to create interest, mastery and engagement rather than to try to train their working memory," Hoås Morin said [13]. The cohort ran for eight years [12] without assigning any child to a motivation programme or to memory training. The statement that motivation is easier to influence than working memory comes from phys.org's account [14]. This study did not test it.
I think the finding justifies a trial before it justifies a curriculum change. The cohort also suggests how to build one: raise a child's interest in maths, then measure maths two years on, the interval at which the association showed up [1]. According to phys.org's account, the findings suggest efforts to make maths engaging should begin early [15].
What to watch
- The full paper's sample size and effect sizes, to show how much a within-child rise in motivation is associated with in later maths scores.
- A randomised trial that raises intrinsic motivation in primary pupils and measures maths two years later, the interval at which the cohort association appeared.
- Whether the paper finds within-person working-memory effects near zero or only smaller than motivation's; the first would weaken the case for memory training far more.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence40
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Higher intrinsic motivation was associated with better math performance two years later, and students who did better in math showed higher intrinsic motivation in the next round of testing.
- [2]
"We found that intrinsic motivation and math performance seem to reinforce each other over time," says Hoås Morin.
ReportedSupportedSource: Astrid Hoås Morin, quoted by phys.org2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [3]
The study, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), is published in the journal Contemporary Educational Psychology.
- [4]
The researchers used data from the Trondheim Early Secure Study (TESS), drawing on participants between 8 and 16 years old.
- [5]
The researchers used a new analysis approach that distinguished stable differences between students from changes that occurred within individual students, letting them examine what factors relate to further development.
- [6]
"Working memory is more about stable differences between students than about what drives further development," says Astrid Hoås Morin.
- [7]
Working memory has a strong influence on how students fare in math; the sharpest students often have good working memory.
- [8]
Intrinsic motivation means the student works at math because they experience the subject as interesting, fun or meaningful, not just to get good grades or praise or to avoid a chewing-out.
- [9]
Astrid Hoås Morin, the study's first author, is an associate professor at NTNU's Department of Education and Lifelong Learning.
- [10]
The paper is titled 'Do better working memory and higher intrinsic motivation predict greater math achievement? Disaggregating within-person and between-person effects in a birth cohort followed from age 8 to 16' (2026).
- [11]
Students who currently have good working memory often continue to have relatively good working memory later in life.
- [12]
The cohort data span eight years of follow-up, from age 8 to age 16.
- [13]
"A more promising way to help students when the goal is to improve their mathematics skills seems to be to create interest, mastery and engagement rather than to try to train their working memory," says Hoås Morin.
ReportedInsufficientSource: Astrid Hoås Morin, quoted by phys.org2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [14]
Motivation is easier to influence than working memory, and much can be gained there.
ReportedInsufficientSource: phys.org article text, not attributed to a study finding2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [15]
The findings suggest that efforts to make math engaging should begin early.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- phys.orgMotivation matters more than working memory for improving student math skills, study finds
1 article · October 2, 2026
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