Use tasks without explicit feedback or rewards to study intrinsic reinforcement responses¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article recommends investigating intrinsic reinforcement using task paradigms that provide neither performance feedback nor explicit rewards. The authors selected the n-back task because "the n-back paradigm provides neither performance feedback nor explicit rewards, allowing investigation of intrinsic reinforcement responses outside of the context of a classic reward paradigm". This design isolates responses to correct performance itself rather than to externally delivered incentives.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A task difficult enough to generate errors, since robust VS activation to correct responses may only occur in more difficult tasks
• A large sample, since incorrect trials are few at lower difficulty levels

Constraints¶

• The n-back task produced few errors at lower levels of working memory load, resulting in few trials and empty cells

Target Learners¶

• children
• adolescents
• young adults

Target Learning Goals¶

• measuring intrinsic reinforcement and motivation during cognitive tasks

Affordances¶

• Intrinsic Reinforcement Signals Vs Cognitive Tasks

Claims¶

• Post-error slowing occurs in the 2-back condition despite absence of feedback [+W]
• In youth performing an n-back task without feedback, bilateral ventral striatum activates more strongly to correct than incorrect responses [+W]
• The VS correct-greater-than-incorrect response is present for both target and foil trials and is not a motor confound [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Satterthwaite Theodore D. M.D., M.A.; Ruparel Kosha M.S.; Loughead James Ph.D; Elliott Mark A. Ph.D.; Gerraty Raphael T. B.A.; Calkins Monica E. Ph.D.; Hakonarson Hakon M.D. Ph.D.; Gur Ruben C. Ph.D.; Gur Raquel E. M.D., Ph.D.; Wolf Daniel H. M.D., Ph.D. (2012). Being Right Is Its Own Reward: Load and Performance Related Ventral Striatum Activation to Correct Responses During a Working Memory Task in Youth. Neuroimage. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358426/