Assignment choice: Do students choose briefer assignments or finishing what they started?

Academic skill development requires engagement in effortful academic behaviors. Although students may be more likely to choose to engage in behaviors that require less effort, they also may be motivated to complete assignments that they have already begun. Seventh-grade students (N = 88) began a mathematics computation worksheet, but were stopped before completing the assignment. Students were then given a choice of completing the assignment they had already begun or a new assignment containing approximately 10% less work. Significantly more students chose to complete the lower-effort assignment. Those who choose the lower-effort assignment indicated that this choice was influenced by the amount of work required. However, those who chose the assignment that they already started indicated that they chose this assignment because they wanted to finish the assignment that they had begun. These results suggest that students are more likely to choose an assignment that requires less effort than one they have started but not yet finished. Discussion focuses on enhancing basic skill fluency and directions for future researchers.