The extant literature on goal orientation is primarily focused on scholastic and athletic achievement. This study extends the literature by examining the viability of three goal orientation dimensions (learning, performance-approach, and performance-avoid) as predictors of complex skill acquisition. Ninety-eight males participated in 7 hours of training in order to learn a computer-based task that simulated the demands of a dynamic aviation environment. Participants completed paper-and-pencil measures of global and task-specific goal orientation as well as a test of general cognitive ability(g). Training outcomes included declarative knowledge, knowledge structure accuracy, skill acquisition, skill retention, and skill transfer. The results indicated that both performance-approach and performance-avoid orientations explained unique variance in training outcomes beyond that explained by g. However, both performance orientations were related to the training outcomes only when operationalized as task-specific orientations, not when operationalized as global dispositions. Learning orientation was not significantly related to the training outcomes.
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