Does the size of rewards influence performance in cognitively demanding tasks?

ABSTRACT: Classic micro-economic and psychology theories propose different implications of monetary incentives on performance. Empirical studies in sports settings show that athletes generally perform worse when the stakes are higher, while a range of lab studies involving cognitively demanding tasks have led to diverging results, supporting positive, negative and null-effects of higher (vs. lower) stakes. In order to further investigate this issue, we present a pre-registered, randomized, controlled trial of 149 participants solving both anagrams and math addition tasks. We do not find a statistically significant effect of the size of the reward on neither performance, self-reported effort nor intrinsic motivation. We propose that future studies should contrast the potential impact of rewards on di

SUBMITTER: Holst-Hansen JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7577432 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature