Summary.To assess the role of self‐determined performance standards (stringentversuslenient) and locus of control (LOC) beliefs (selfversusexternal) on children's self‐regulation of academic behaviour, measures of arithmetic and verbal persistence and accuracy were obtained from 32 children of average IQ (mean age = 9.84 years). An orthogonal 2 × 2 (performance standards × LOC) MANOVA revealed a significant interaction. Subsequent univariate ANOVAs showed that this result pertained only to the two verbal measures: when children had an internal LOC, it was immaterial whether they self‐determined stringent or lenient performance standards. However, stringent standards were more important for children with an external orientation. These results point to the possibility that the effects of self‐regulation are task specific, and indicate the importance of viewing effective academic performance as a function of both motivation