Ready Set Goal: A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining Motivation and Cognition in Stroke Patients

The study is a single-blind randomized controlled trial. It employs a mixed design, with a between-subjects variable (goal-setting instructions versus standardized instructions) and a within-subjects variable (pre-post instructional manipulation). It is a one-time intervention lasting 1-2 hours. Investigators plan to enroll 72 patients in this study. All participants will complete neuropsychological measures to assess their baseline performance. The baseline measures include Trial 1 of the CVLT-II Alternate Form, the Digit Span Test, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Semantic Fluency Test, Apathy Evaluation Scale and Trail Making Test. After the baseline measures are completed, all participants will rate their level of motivation on a scale from 1 (extremely unmotivated) to 100 (extremely motivated), which will act as a pre-manipulation check measure, their level of fatigue on a scale from 1 (extremely not fatigued) to 100 (extremely fatigued), and their level of anxiety from 1 (extremely not anxious) to 100 (extremely anxious; 1 minute).

After completing the baseline measures and rating scales, half (n = 36) of the participants will be randomly assigned to the goal-setting instruction group ("goal-setting group"). Motivation will be enhanced by asking participants to perform 20% better than their previous performance on a similar task, and translating that into a number (e.g., "On this task, you generated 10 words when I asked you to name as many words as you could that start with the letter "F." Now, for the next letter, I want you to generate 12 words."). The remainder of the participants (n = 36) will be assigned to the "standard instruction group," where they will only receive the standardized instructions for completing the tests.