Journal article
Funny money: the attentional role of monetary feedback detached from expected value
Attention, perception & psychophysics, Vol.78(7), pp.2199-2212
10/2016
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-016-1147-y
PMID: 27245703
Abstract
Stimuli associated with monetary reward can become powerful cues that effectively capture visual attention. We examined whether such value-driven attentional capture can be induced with monetary feedback in the absence of an expected cash payout. To this end, we implemented images of U.S. dollar bills as reward feedback. Participants knew in advance that they would not receive any money based on their performance. Our reward stimuli-$5 and $20 bill images-were thus dissociated from any practical utility. Strikingly, we observed a reliable attentional capture effect for the mere images of bills. Moreover, this finding generalized to Monopoly money. In two control experiments, we found no evidence in favor of nominal or symbolic monetary value. Hence, we claim that bill images are special monetary representations, such that there are strong associations between the defining visual features of bills and reward, probably due to a lifelong learning history. Together, we show that the motivation to earn cash plays a minor role when it comes to monetary rewards, while bill-defining visual features seem to be sufficient. These findings have the potential to influence human factor applications, such as gamification, and can be extended to novel value systems, such as the electronic cash Bitcoin being developed for use in mobile banking. Finally, our procedure represents a proof of concept on how images of money can be used to conserve expenditures in the experimental context.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Funny money: the attentional role of monetary feedback detached from expected value
- Creators
- Zachary J J Roper - Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 301 Wilson Hall, Nashville, TN, 37240, USA. z.roper@vanderbilt.eduShaun P Vecera - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, E11 Seashore Hall, Iowa City, IA, 52242-1407, USA. shaun-vecera@uiowa.edu
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Attention, perception & psychophysics, Vol.78(7), pp.2199-2212
- DOI
- 10.3758/s13414-016-1147-y
- PMID
- 27245703
- NLM abbreviation
- Atten Percept Psychophys
- ISSN
- 1943-393X
- eISSN
- 1943-393X
- Publisher
- United States
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/2016
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984002354702771
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