Motivation is a complex process involving many factors that interact to affect behavior. It is unlikely that a single theory can completely explain this process. Combining perspectives from multiple theories has the potential to provide unique insights in the understanding of motivation. If we are to effectively use physical education classes to promote physical activity, it is imperative for teachers and researchers to understand how motivational factors such as ability belief systems and intrinsic motivation interact to affect individual motivation. According to Dweck (1999), individuals are oriented either toward an incremental conception of ability, reflecting a belief that ability can be improved with effort, or an entity conception of ability as a construct that is fixed and cannot be changed. Research to date, however, has dealt with ability conceptions and intrinsic motivation in isolation, or merely compared these two constructs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ability conceptions and intrinsic motivation on persistence and performance using an interaction approach. Participants were 97 female college students who attempted to learn a novel task. Lunastix was selected as the learning activity because it is a novel task, and assesses individuals’ object manipulation ability. Data sources included questionnaires assessing conceptions of ability and intrinsic motivation, engaged time during a 10-minute practice session to assess persistence, and a final skill test.. Robust regression analyses with interaction effects were used to analyze the data. Participants who were more intrinsically motivated were likely to persist longer at the task and performed better on the final skill test. A significant interaction effect showed that participants who were highly intrinsically motivated had lower performance scores as they were more oriented toward incremental ability beliefs. This suggests that when participants held higher incremental conceptions, they were likely to maintain intrinsic motivation even when they did not perform well on the task. Participants who performed well on the skill test were intrinsically motivated regardless of their ability conceptions. The findings support the notion that intrinsic motivation is crucial for understanding motivational processes, and suggest that a belief in the efficacy of effort is likely to foster intrinsic motivation when individuals are challenged. One implication is that creating an environment where students are encouraged to believe their performance can improve with effort should foster intrinsic motivation. An interaction approach promises to provide a clearer understanding of how motivational constructs interact to affect students’ motivational patterns.Keyword(s): . NA