The influence of monetary reward and punishment on psychological, physiological, behavioral and performance aspects of a golf putting task

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine kinematic characteristics and force control during a golf-putting task under a pressure condition. The secondary purpose was to provide an exploratory investigation of the relationship between changes in behavior (kinematics and force control) and performance on the one hand, and psychological (attention and affect) and physiological (arousal level) changes on the other hand. Twenty male novices performed 150 acquisition trials, followed by 10 test trials during a pressure condition induced by performance-contingent distracters: a cash reward or punishment. A three-dimensional motion analysis revealed that, during the pressure test, angular displacements of rotational movements at the horizontal plane and movement time of the arms and club during the backswing and downswing phases all decreased, while acceleration of the elbows during the downswing phase increased. Mean performance indices in all participants’ were unchanged in spite of the kinematic changes under the pressure condition. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the decrement in performance, as well as increased variability of movement time and speed, were more likely to increase when participants shifted their attention to movements. Furthermore, changes in heart rate and negative affect were related to both the increase in movement acceleration and a decrease in grip force. These findings suggest that performance and behavioral changes during golf-putting under pressure can be associated with attentional changes, along with the influences of physiological-emotional responses.     

预期惩罚调节认知控制权衡：来自行为和fNIRS的证据

为了探讨预期惩罚是如何影响认知控制权衡,本研究采用fNIRS技术考察被试在完成有惩罚和无惩罚AX-CPT任务时的行为表现和大脑激活模式。行为结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比,惩罚条件下个体偏向主动性控制。脑成像结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比,惩罚条件下大脑前额叶皮层在线索阶段处于负激活状态。这说明,惩罚条件下在线索阶段个体需要更多的注意资源,因此,脑成像的结果也表明惩罚使被试更偏向主动性控制。     

The effectiveness of reward and punishment contingencies on response inhibition

The relative effectiveness of reward and punishment on the development of response inhibition was evaluated developmentally. Forty kindergarten and forty second-graders received response inhibition training with half of each group rewarded for inhibiting and half punished for not inhibiting. Reward involved the presentation of positive reinforcers, whereas punishment involved their removal. Punishment produced more inhibition at both age levels than did reward. Transfer of inhibition training was evaluated in two tasks. Transfer effects were observed only on one of the two tasks. Reinforcement contingencies and age did not differentially influence the magnitude of transfer.     

The phonological loop in task alternation and task repetition

It has recently been proposed that task repetition is easier than task alternation because the appropriate task settings are already present in working memory, whereas during task alternation task settings must be retrieved from long-term memory (Mayr & Kliegl, 2000). The present study tested whether the phonological loop is involved in keeping the relevant task settings active in working memory. It may then be expected that concurrent articulatory suppression would diminish the facilitation associated with task repetition because the phonological loop could no longer maintain the appropriate task settings active in working memory. Both during task repetition and task alternation the relevant task settings should then be retrieved from long-term memory. Three dual-task experiments were conducted. The results of Experiment 1 were in support of our prediction. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1 and showed that the task settings probably represent the adequate response mappings. Experiment 3 ruled out the involvement of the visuo-spatial sketchpad and more general coordination demands during dual tasking.     

The phonological loop in task alternation and task repetition

It has recently been proposed that task repetition is easier than task alternation because the appropriate task settings are already present in working memory, whereas during task alternation task settings must be retrieved from long-term memory (Mayr & Kliegl, 2000). The present study tested whether the phonological loop is involved in keeping the relevant task settings active in working memory. It may then be expected that concurrent articulatory suppression would diminish the facilitation associated with task repetition because the phonological loop could no longer maintain the appropriate task settings active in working memory. Both during task repetition and task alternation the relevant task settings should then be retrieved from long-term memory. Three dual-task experiments were conducted. The results of Experiment 1 were in support of our prediction. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1 and showed that the task settings probably represent the adequate response mappings. Experiment 3 ruled out the involvement of the visuo-spatial sketchpad and more general coordination demands during dual tasking.     

Dorsal striatum responses to reward and punishment: Effects of valence and magnitude manipulations

The goal of this research was to further our understanding of how the striatum responds to the delivery of affective feedback. Previously, we had found that the striatum showed a pattern of sustained activation after presentation of a monetary reward, in contrast to a decrease in the hemodynamic response after a punishment. In this study, we tested whether the activity of the striatum could be modulated by parametric variations in the amount of financial reward or punishment. We used an event-related fMRI design in which participants received large or small monetary rewards or punishments after performance in a gambling task. A parametric ordering of conditions was observed in the dorsal striatum according to both magnitude and valence. In addition, an early response to the presentation of feedback was observed and replicated in a second experiment with increased temporal resolution. This study further implicates the dorsal striatum as an integral component of a reward circuitry responsible for the control of motivated behavior, serving to code for such feedback properties as valence and magnitude.     

The influence of reward/punishment and personality pupil attainment

Hypotheses (inferred from Gray, 1970) were tested that under reward conditions, Extrovert (E)+ subjects will achieve better than E− subjects and Neurotic (N)+ subjects will achieve better than N− subjects, while under punishment conditions, E− subjects will achieve better than E+ subjects and N− subjects will achieve better than N+ subjects. Three secondary school classrooms were identified in which the teacher in mathematics was predominantly rewarding, offered a balance of reward and punishment or was predominantly punishing. The pupils in these classes were 82 boys in their 14th year. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire: Junior Version was administered. Individual scores for E and N were ascertained. All boys were administered the Profile of Mathematical Skills: Level 2 (France, 1979). After 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 school days, parallel arithmetic tests were administered. Inspection of the resulting graphs of mathematics progress indicated that the hypotheses were not confirmed, which made further statistical analysis inappropriate. However, issues arose in conducting the research that suggested improvements over an earlier study (McCord & Wakefield, 1981). Difficulties encountered in the present research are described and suggestions are made for improvements to future research in this area.     

The effects of perceived similarity upon the use of reward and punishment

Subjects were led to perceive a trainee as either similar or dissimilar to themselves. During subsequent influence trials, subjects attempted to assess the causes of the trainee's performance and to employ rewards, punishments, or manipulations of the trainee's environment to optimize her performance. It was predicted that subjects would perceive the performance of dissimilar trainees as caused more by the dispositional factor of motivation than the performance of similar trainees, and that dissimilar trainees would thus be rewarded more upon success as well as punished more upon failure. The hypotheses were supported, and a model of reward-punishment behavior and attribution is discussed.     

Asymmetrical effects of reward and punishment on attributions of morality

The authors found that 3 experiments revealed that compliance with a pro-social request for an anticipated reward as opposed to a threatened punishment resulted in greater inferences of personal morality. In Experiment 1, participants received information about a teaching assistant (TA) who was either promised a reward or threatened with a punishment when asked for compliance. The participants perceived the TA as more moral for complying given the positive incentive as opposed to the negative incentive. Experiment 2 replicated this finding in a different culture, using different vignettes and incentives. Last, in Experiment 3, the results revealed that a perceived actor's real intentions mediated the effect of incentive valence on dispositional causation. That is, given a reward relative to a punishment, participants were more likely to assume that the agent would have helped even if no incentive had been offered.     

Perceived punishment and reward values of supervisor actions

The study investigated employee perceptions about the reward or punishment values inherent in a variety of supervisor actions. Actions viewed as most rewarding were generally actions that possessed (a) public visibility, (b) tangibility, (c) implied esteem, and (d) long-term implications. Actions viewed as punishing or aversive involved similar characteristics. Visibility appeared to be most strongly related to perceived severity. In contrast with suggestions in the literature (cf. León, 1981), substantial levels of agreement among raters were found for aversive as well as rewarding actions. Also reviewed are characteristics of leader actions that received mixed ratings from respondents.     

Children's perceptions of unfair reward and punishment.

Being able to judge the fairness of a personal encounter and having an appreciation of the associated feelings are important components of prosocial development. This study explored a common feature of everyday experience: unfair reward and unfair punishment. Scenarios depicting 4 possible variants of unfairness were read to children aged 9 to 11 years, who then made judgments regarding the degree of unfairness and the nature and strength of the feelings experienced by the characters. Our hypothesis that children with classroom conduct problems would judge the non-receipt of a deserved reward as worse than the receipt of an undeserved punishment was not confirmed. This differentiation, however, did prove to be characteristic of boys in general, but not girls. Being asked to think of unfair things that had actually happened did not appear to influence the children's responses to hypothetical unfair situations, but did reveal that children experience and remember a variety of unfair events in everyday family contexts. This study provides evidence that children actively monitor the receipt of social reward and punishment according to their perception of fairness.     

Effects of response selection on the task repetition benefit in task switching

A task switch typically leads to worse performance than a repetition does. This shift cost can be reduced with sufficient task preparation time, but a residual cost usually remains. We propose that a large part of this residual cost is caused by an activation bias produced by response selection processes in the preceding trial. In our experiments, we manipulated response selection requirements using a go/no-go methodology. The residual shift cost disappeared after no-go trials, suggesting that response selection is crucial to establish an activation bias for the current category-response rules and that this bias persists into the next trial. A comparison with a go-only group confirmed this analysis by revealing no differences in preparatory strategy due to the inclusion of no-go trials. In addition, no-go trials had no significant effects on subsequent trials in a single-task experiment, suggesting that no-go trials are not coded as a task different from go trials and that there is no inhibition of the prepared task in a no-go trial. We thus conclude that a persisting activation bias of response rules plays a major role in task switching.     

Infantile handling and the extinction of responses acquired under food reward

A comparison was made of the runway behaviour of rats which had been handled from Days 1-21 and their non-handled litter mates. The training began on Day 70 after the animals were habituated to a restricted food schedule for 10 days. The subjects were given six trials each day in the runway and were rewarded with a 0.045 g. Noyes pellet. After 10 days of rewarded training trials, subjects were given 6 extinction trials a day for 10 days. Results showed that handled rats ran faster than non-handled rats during acquisition and during the first 3 days of extinction. The extinction data suggested that the relationship between emotionality and effects of frustrative non-reward should be re-evaluated.     

The role of response repetition in task switching

When switching between tasks, participants are sometimes required to use different response sets for each task. Thus, task switch and response set switch are confounded. In 5 experiments, the authors examined transitions of response within a linear 4-finger arrangement. A random baseline condition was compared with the cuing of specific response subsets grouped by hand or by finger equivalence, and these subsets were examined in both single task and task-switching designs. Results showed that part of the task switch cost is associated with switching between response sets. Furthermore, the analysis revealed a novel effect: When task switching and repetition trials are mixed, a bias towards switching the response and/or hand is found in task repetition trials. Response repetition is hindered when a task switch is expected, even for those trials when a switch of task does not occur. The results demonstrate executive processes involved in task set configuration closely depend on the motoric processing of the response set. The results are also important for current theories of task set control.