Student tasks are assigned frequently in higher education to facilitate learning. For the students, the task grade is one of the motivating components for successfully performing a task. In this study, we presented students with a hypothetical task under different but equivalent grade computations (framings). Based upon principles derived from behavioral economics, the grade computations were framed as a loss or gain and explicitly or implicitly. Responding to each of these framings, 365 undergraduates reported their level of task engagement, task completion, and their anticipated regret for not completing the task (student outcomes). Findings revealed that when the task grade was framed as producing a potential loss in points, respondents reported higher student outcome levels than when framed as producing a potential gain in the grade. Furthermore, framing the grade’s consequence explicitly (without requiring the students to calculate it) had a stronger positive effect on student outcomes than when framing it implicitly.

在高等教育中经常分配学生任务，以促进学习。对于学生而言，任务等级是成功完成任务的激励因素之一。在这项研究中，我们向学生展示了一个假设任务，该任务在不同但等效的成绩计算（框架）下进行。根据源自行为经济学的原理，等级计算被构造为损失或收益，并明确或暗含。针对这些框架中的每一个，365名大学生报告了他们的任务投入水平，任务完成程度以及他们对未完成任务的预期遗憾（学生成绩）。调查结果表明，将任务等级定为产生潜在的分数损失时，受访者报告的学生结业水平要高于将其定为产生潜在收益的情况。