Cueing task goals and earning money: Relatively high monetary rewards reduce failures to act on goals in a Stroop task.

Motivation and Emotion
Harm Veling, Henk Aarts

Abstract

We examined the role of monetary rewards in failures to act on goals in a Stroop task. Based on recent developments in theorizing on the interplay between rewards and cognitive control, we hypothesized that relatively high monetary rewards enhance the focus and stability of a cued task goal compared to low monetary rewards, and hence cause a reduction in failures to act on current task goals under circumstances that warrant top-down goal implementation. To test this, participants received a modified version of the Stroop task, in which they were either briefly cued with the goal of naming the color or meaning of targets on a trial-by-trial basis. After goal cuing, but before presenting the target, either a low or high reward cue was presented. Results showed that higher rewards produced a general speed-up. More importantly, Stroop interference on error rates was lower in the high reward condition compared to the low reward condition, revealing that the rewards enhanced focus and stability of the cued goal. These results provide support for theorizing that reward processing modulates utility assessment of current goals by affecting attention to facilitate goal-directed behavior.

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Citations

Aug 10, 2012·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Adam C Savine, Todd S Braver
Feb 21, 2014·Experimental Brain Research·Ping Wei, Guanlan Kang
Aug 8, 2015·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Ping WeiLiyan Ji
Jun 5, 2015·Attention, Perception & Psychophysics·Jennifer Lynn, Myoungju Shin
Jul 16, 2014·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·David M LydonCharles F Geier
Sep 10, 2014·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience·Alexander SoutschekTorsten Schubert
Dec 19, 2013·Cognition & Emotion·Alexander SoutschekTorsten Schubert
Jun 1, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Youlong ZhanYiping Zhong
Jan 9, 2014·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Claire M ZedeliusHenk Aarts
Jul 31, 2016·Brain Imaging and Behavior·P Rosell-NegreA Barrós-Loscertales
Sep 13, 2017·Scientific Reports·Di WangJiannong Shi
Sep 2, 2019·Psychological Research·Valerio ManippaDavide Pietroni
Nov 23, 2020·The European Journal of Neuroscience·Carsten BundtWim Notebaert

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