Demographic Variables Related to Motivation Motivation is an unstable consequence of the situation perceived by the individual and therefore considered contextual or situational (Paris & Turner, 1994). Motivation continues to change as a learner assesses and reassesses their ability to accomplish the task and the value of the reward upon accomplishing the task. Demographic variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, etc. are always factored in the individual's assessment of the situation and their capability of success in the situation. The environment of the classroom does allow for all learners to be in the same situation, but the learner continually constructs motivation (Paris & Turner) making motivation highly individualized and difficult to generalize to specific demographics. Measurement of Motivation The wide variety of motivational theories has led to the development of many instruments to measure motivation. To meet the objectives of this study and to remain consistent with expectancy-value theory, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia & McKeachie, 1991) was used to determine motivation of each student specific to the class to which the instrument was administered. The MSLQ was designed specifically to measure undergraduate student motivation for self-regulated learning. The three components of the instrument include an expectancy component with items related to student beliefs of ability in performing a task, a value component with items concerning goals and reasons for completing a task, and an affective component which includes items regarding emotional reactions to the task (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990).