Thesis (Ed.D.)--Liberty University School of Education, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is one of increasing the goal-striving and achievement behavior of externally controlled students. The present study was designed to test the efficacy of short-term persistence training. The purpose of the training was to alter temporarily the cue discrimination and paired-associate memory task outcomes of externally controlled students. It was found that persistence training had no significant effect on either the cue discrimination or paired associate memory task performance of the students. Surprisingly, internals failed to do better than externals, regardless of the type of persistence training or the task employed. Although the total internal IARQ scores of the students in this study were comparable to those of the standardized norm of the IARQ, the students did not perform as might have been expected from the review of the literature. Because persistence training failed to enhance the students' cue discrimination or paired-associate memory task performance, it was concluded that brief persistence training was ineffective. However, because externals performed comparably to internals it was also concluded that the locus of control dimension was not predictive of achievement on these tasks for these students. This finding was in opposition to most related literature. Further research was therefore recommended comparing the performance of bright, high achieving externals (like those in the present investigation) with that of more typical external students (e.g. public school externals).