A major concern in psychology and education is that rewards decrease intrinsic motivation to perform activities. Over the past 30 years, more than 100 experimental studies have been conducted on this topic. In 1994, Cameron and Pierce conducted a meta-analysis of this literature and concluded that negative effects of reward were limited and could be easily prevented in applied settings. A more recent meta-analysis of the literature by Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (1999) shows pervasive negative effects of reward. The purpose of the present article is to resolve differences in previous meta-analytic findings and to provide a meta-analysis of rewards and intrinsic motivation that permits tests of competing theoretical explanations. Our results suggest that in general, rewards are not harmful to motivation to perform a task. Rewards given for low-interest tasks enhance free-choice intrinsic motivation. On high-interest tasks, verbal rewards produce positive effects on free-choice motivation and self-reported task interest. Negative effects are found on high-interest tasks when the rewards are tangible, expected (offered beforehand), and loosely tied to level of performance. When rewards are linked to level of performance, measures of intrinsic motivation increase or do not differ from a nonrewarded control group. Overall, the pattern of results indicates that reward contingencies do not have pervasive negative effects on intrinsic motivation. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are addressed.

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This study assessed how rewards impacted intrinsic motivation when students were rewarded for achievement while learning an activity, for performing at a specific level on a test, or for both. Undergraduate university students engaged in a problem-solving activity. The design was a 2 ϫ 2 factorial with 2 levels of reward in a learning phase (reward for achievement, no reward) and 2 levels of reward in a test phase (reward for achievement, no reward). Intrinsic motivation was measured as time spent on the experimental task and ratings of task interest during a free-choice period. A major finding was that achievement-based rewards during learning or testing increased participants' intrinsic motivation. A path analysis indicated that 2 processes (perceived competence and interest-internal attribution) mediated the positive effects of achievement-based rewards in learning and testing on intrinsic motivation. Findings are discussed in terms of the cognitive evaluation, attribution, and social-cognitive theories.

The present study examined how rewards affect people's intrinsic motivation when the rewards are tied to meeting increasingly demanding performance standards. The experiment was a 2 x 2 factorial design with 2 levels of performance standard (constant, progressive) and 2 levels of reward (reward, no reward). Using a puzzle-solving task, 60 undergraduate university students were randomly assigned to the experimental conditions. In the constant conditions, participants were required to solve 3 puzzle problems on each of 3 trials; in the progressive conditions, participants were asked to solve 1, 3, and 5 problems over the trials. Half the participants were offered and given $1.00 for each correct solution; those in the no-reward condition were not offered pay. The major finding was that participants in the progressive reward condition spent more time on the task in a free-choice session than those in the other conditions. The findings are discussed in terms of different theoretical accounts of rewards and intrinsic motivation and are most consistent with an extension of Eisenberger's (1992) theory of learned industriousness.For over thirty years, researchers in social psychology have argued that rewarding people for doing activities produces detrimental effects. The claim is that when individuals are rewarded for performing a task, they will come to like the task less and spend less time on it once the rewards are no longer forthcoming. Rewards are said to destroy people's intrinsic motivation. A recent meta-analytic review of experiments on the topic, however, shows that under some conditions, rewards actually enhance people's motivation and performance (Cameron, Banko, & Pierce, 2001). Specifically, when people are offered a tangible reward (e.g., money) to meet a designated performance level, studies show increases in measures of intrinsic motivation. The present study is This research was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada. Correspondence may be sent to W.

For infantry units of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, high attrition rates (varying from 42 to 68%) during initial training are a persisting problem. The reasons for this attrition are diverse. Having better insight into the causes of attrition is a prerequisite for implementing preventive measures. To achieve this, a monitoring assessment system was developed that integrated the effects of physical, mental, and organizational determinants on operational readiness. The aim of this study was to implement the monitoring tools and to establish the set of determinants that best predicted attrition during infantry training of new recruits. Eighty-five recruits were monitored over a 24-week infantry training course. Before the training, recruits were screened for medical, psychological, and physical wellness. During the monitoring phase, mental, physiological, and organizational indicants were obtained using an array of tools such as questionnaires, chest belt monitors (for heart rate, acceleration, and skin temperature measurements), and computerized tests (e.g., vigilance, long-term memory). Survival analyses were used to tease out the determinants of individual and grouped predictors of attrition. Nearly half the recruits (47%) failed the training. Attrition was predicted by both physiological and mental determinants. However, the organizational determinant "trainers' judgment" on the "recruits' military quality" dominated the physiological and mental determinants. It was concluded that the monitoring system was successfully implemented during infantry training, and that the survival analysis method emphasized on single effects and interactions between the different determinants. Based on the current findings, we recommend several steps to successfully implement a monitoring method in settings with high demands.