The influence of positive affect and reward on processes of cognitive control

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gesine Dreisbach
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2014 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260319437

• Final Report Year: 2020

Final Report Abstract

In this project we investigated how performance contingent reward (as compared to positive affect and non-contingent reward) modulates processes of cognitive control. The main findings can be summarized as follows: (1) We found clear evidence that performance contingent reward increases proactive control, even to an extent that it is no longer beneficial. (2) These reward effects are not restricted to mere cue-triggered response priming but also hold true for cue-triggered task rule priming. (3) Performance non-contingent reward - even when provided in runs of 20 consecutive trials - still reduces proactive control and does not generally impair task engagement. (4) Positive affect also appears to reduce proactive control but is very sensitive to strategic influences such as motivation and time on task. The obtained results contribute to our broader theoretical framework, further confirming the selective influence of positive affect and (non) contingent reward on the modulation of the flexibility-stability-balance.

Publications

• How performance (non-)contingent reward modulates cognitive control. Acta Psychologica,168, 65-77
  Fröber, K. & Dreisbach, G.
  
• The motivational modulation of proactive control in a modified version of the AX-Continuous Performance Task: Evidence from cuebased and prime-based preparation. Motivation Science, 2(2), 116-134
  Hefer, C., & Dreisbach, G.
  
• How performance-contingent reward prospect modulates cognitive control: Increased cue maintenance at the cost of decreased flexibility. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 43 (10), 1643-1658
  Hefer, C. & Dreisbach, G.
  
• How to be flexible (or not): Modulation of the Flexibility- Stability-Balance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 3-9
  Dreisbach, G. & Fröber, K.
  
• Prospect of performance-contingent reward distorts the action-relevance of predictive context information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 46(2), 380–399
  Hefer, C. & Dreisbach, G.
  
• The volatile nature of positive affect effects: Opposite effects of positive affect and time on task on proactive control. Psychological Research, Vol. 84. 2020, pp. 774–783.
  Hefer, C. & Dreisbach, G.