Journal article
Humans Integrate Monetary and Liquid Incentives to Motivate Cognitive Task Performance
Frontiers in psychology, Vol.6, pp.2037-2037
01/21/2016
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02037
PMID: 26834668
Abstract
It is unequivocal that a wide variety of incentives can motivate behavior. However, few studies have explicitly examined whether and how different incentives are integrated in terms of their motivational influence. The current study examines the combined effects of monetary and liquid incentives on cognitive processing, and whether appetitive and aversive incentives have distinct influences. We introduce a novel task paradigm, in which participants perform cued task switching for monetary rewards that vary parametrically across trials, with liquid incentives serving as post-trial performance feedback. Critically, the symbolic meaning of the liquid was held constant (indicating successful reward attainment), while liquid valence was blocked. In the first experiment, monetary rewards combined additively with appetitive liquid feedback to improve subject task performance. Aversive liquid feedback counteracted monetary reward effects in low monetary reward trials, particularly in a subset of participants who tended to avoid responding under these conditions. Self-report motivation ratings predicted behavioral performance above and beyond experimental effects. A follow-up experiment replicated the predictive power of motivation ratings even when only appetitive liquids were used, suggesting that ratings reflect idiosyncratic subjective values of, rather than categorical differences between, the liquid incentives. Together, the findings indicate an integrative relationship between primary and secondary incentives and potentially dissociable influences in modulating motivational value, while informing hypotheses regarding candidate neural mechanisms.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Humans Integrate Monetary and Liquid Incentives to Motivate Cognitive Task Performance
- Creators
- Debbie M. Yee - Washington University in St. LouisMarie K. Krug - Washington University in St. LouisAriel Z. Allen - Washington University in St. LouisTodd S. Braver - Washington University in St. Louis
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in psychology, Vol.6, pp.2037-2037
- DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02037
- PMID
- 26834668
- ISSN
- 1664-1078
- eISSN
- 1664-1078
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media Sa
- Number of pages
- 17
- Grant note
- R21MH097260 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R01AG043461 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA) R21 MH097260; R21 MH105800 / National Institutes of Health; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/21/2016
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9985180931002771
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