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Military academies request initiatives for better pedagogy to keep their cadets motivated and successful. Following the self-determination theory, one could promote autonomous motivation by fulfilling the three basic psychological needs of students: the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence. In this qualitative research, we investigated which motivational critical events go together with a perception of high or low autonomy, relatedness and competence. To this end, we organized four focus groups with participants from the two faculties of the Royal Military Academy of Belgium (RMA): Social and Military Sciences (SMS) and Engineering (ENG). Using the critical incident method, we searched for the facilitating and inhibiting events with regard to motivation within the learning environment. Thereafter, we used the constant comparison method as an analysis technique to link the critical events to one of the three basic needs. We found that a perception of high relatedness was the most effective in motivating SMS cadets, while the perception of high competence was the most effective in motivating ENG cadets. For both the SMS and ENG cadets, a lack of autonomy was demotivating. This study provides a model that suggests in which way context characteristics within a (military) learning environment meets students' basic psychological needs and how it is facilitating or inhibiting motivation in turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present field experiment examined how multi-trial visuo-spatial learning and memory performance are impacted by excessive arousal, instigated by a potentially life-threatening event (i.e., a first parachute jump). Throughout a parachute training activity, subjective and neuroendocrine (i.e., cortisol) stress levels were assessed of 61 male military cadets who were randomly assigned to a control ( n = 30) or a jump stress condition ( n = 31). Post-stress learning and memory capacity was assessed with a 10-trial path-learning task that permitted emergence of learning curves. Pre-activity cortisol concentrations indicated a significant neuroendocrine anticipatory stress response in the stress group. Following parachuting, subjective stress levels and salivary cortisol reactivity differed significantly between groups. Visuo-spatial path-learning performance was impaired significantly after jump stress exposure, relative to the control group. Moreover, examination of the learning curves showed similar learning and memory performance at onset of the trials, with curves bifurcating as the task became more complex. These findings are in accordance with leading theories that acknowledge a moderating effect of task complexity. In sum, the present study extends knowledge concerning anticipatory stress effects, endogenously instigated cortisol reactivity, and the influence of extreme arousal on visuo-spatial path learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]