This study aimed to assess whether attentional allocation to direct object pronouns in L2 Spanish was influenced by external or internal manipulations of attention and whether these manipulations caused learning of the form. Attention was measured by fixation duration and skipping rate on the pronouns, and learning was measured with a sentence interpretation task. Results provided empirical evidence that both types of manipulations direct attention to target forms, but in different ways, and bring about learning. In addition to examining the role of attention, the present study examined how different types of motivation, (i.e., integrative, intrinsic and extrinsic) were related to both attentional allocation and learning and found that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were related to different attentional manipulations. Results are informative for models of L2 acquisition that posit a role for attention, instructed L2 acquisition and L2 motivation research.