The present study examined how achievement goals affect memory encoding (i.e., relational and item-specific processes). To achieve this, we conducted five experiments using valid behavioral measures including adjusted ratio of clustering (ARC) scores and recognition performance and manipulating the instructions for achievement goals. In each experiment, participants were provided with mastery-approach goals (to develop their own mental ability) or performance-approach goals (to demonstrate their strong memory abilities in relation to others). Participants in the control condition were not given any goals. Our results showed that the ARC scores in the performance-approach goal condition were lower than those in the control condition, whereas there was no significant difference in ARC scores between the mastery-approach goal and the control conditions. In contrast, recognition performance in the control condition did not significantly differ from those in either goal condition. These findings suggest that achievement goals affect the relational processes rather than the item-specific processes and that performance-approach goals discourage the relational processes.

本研究研究了成就目标如何影响记忆编码（即关系和项目特定过程）。为了实现这一目标，我们进行了五次实验，使用了有效的行为指标，包括调整后的聚类（ARC）得分比例和识别性能，并操纵了实现目标的说明。在每个实验中，都为参与者提供了掌握方法的目标（发展自己的心理能力）或表现方法的目标（证明他们对他人的强烈记忆能力）。没有给控制条件的参与者任何目标。我们的结果表明，在效果逼近目标条件下的ARC得分低于对照条件下的ARC得分，而掌握方法的目标和控制条件之间的ARC分数没有显着差异。相反，在控制条件下的识别性能与任一目标条件下的识别性能均无显着差异。这些发现表明，成就目标会影响关系过程，而不是特定于项目的过程，而绩效评估目标会阻碍关系过程。