Developing effective educational interventions is an important goal for educators and researchers alike. Previous research has found associations between performance in academic settings and characteristics such as Conscientiousness and cognitive ability. However, these dispositional characteristics tend to be stable and might be difficult to influence without considerable effort. The current research therefore investigated the efficacy of two interventions that attempted to influence lower level constructs that are closer to the performance outcomes. Studies 1a and 1b tested an implementation intentions intervention in two samples (participants at a large Midwestern university and Mechanical Turk workers). The results of these studies showed that merely reminding students to complete their homework was more effective at inducing homework completion than reminding participants to complete it while also having them set implementation intentions to do so. Study 2 tested a boundary goal setting intervention that asked participants to raise their lower boundaries for success in their introductory psychology class, either in conjunction with an implementation intention or not. The results of Study 2 found little indication that raising boundary goals impacted performance in the course independent of the level at which the goals were initially set. Furthermore, setting implementation intentions actually decreased performance levels. There was little evidence that either Conscientiousness or cognitive ability moderated reactions to the interventions across all studies. Overall, the results of the two studies suggest that interventions that attempt to influence lower level variables such as strategies and goals have promise for promoting achievement in academic contexts. The results add to the literature on the effectiveness of reminders for helping to overcome barriers to the initiation of goal-directed behavior.
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