RETRACTED ARTICLE: Local and global effects of motivation on cognitive control

Abstract

Motivation has been found to enhance cognitive control, but the mechanisms by which this occurs are still poorly understood. Cued motivational incentives (e.g., monetary rewards) can modulate cognitive processing locallythat is, on a trial-by-trial basis (incentive cue effect). Recently, motivational incentives have also been found to produce more global and tonic changes in performance, as evidenced by performance benefits on nonincentive trials occurring within incentive blocks (incentive context effect).In two experiments involving incentivized cued task switching, we provide systematic evidence that the two effects are dissociable. Through behavioral, diffusion-modeling, and individual-differences analyses, we found dissociations between local and global motivational effects that were linked to specific properties of the incentive signals (i.e., timing), while also ruling out alternative interpretations (e.g., practice and speed-accuracy trade-off effects). These results provide important clues regarding the neural mechanisms by which motivation exerts both global and local influences on cognitive control.

Temporal Dynamics of Motivation-Cognitive Control Interactions Revealed by High-Resolution Pupillometry

“…We believe this unlikely for a number of reasons. First, our prior studies have shown no evidence of practice contributing to block-based incentive effects (Savine et al, 2010), including recent work that used a more systematic design to directly control for such effects (involving post-incentive baselines and a no-incentive control group; Savine and Braver, 2012). Second, in a supplementary analysis of this dataset, in which each block was broken down into four 50-trial epochs, potential practice effects were found to disappear after the first epoch, while a clear discontinuity in performance was observed when comparing the last epoch of the baseline block to the first of the reward block.…”

“…Such investigations have been particularly important as increasing evidence suggests that increased motivation may improve task performance specifically through enhanced cognitive control (as opposed to a more general arousal effect; Pochon et al, 2002; Locke and Braver, 2008; Savine et al, 2010; Padmala and Pessoa, 2011). More specifically, some studies suggest that motivational incentives may change cognitive control processes by altering their temporal dynamics, increasing use of proactive (i.e., preparatory and/or sustained) control mechanisms, as opposed to reactive control mechanisms, which are engaged only as needed (Locke and Braver, 2008; Savine and Braver, 2010, 2012). Despite these suggestions, prior research on motivation-cognition interactions has not fully delineated the time courses of these interactions.…”

“…In the current study, we utilized a mixed block/event experimental design to examine motivational incentive effects (Savine et al, 2010; Savine and Braver, 2012). In this design, participants perform separate baseline (no incentives offered) and reward blocks; within the reward block, non-incentive trials are randomly intermixed with incentive trials.…”

“…The advantage of this design is that it allows examination of both trial-based (contrasting incentive and non-incentive trials within the reward block) and block-based (contrasting trials of the baseline block with non-incentive trials in the reward block) effects of incentive on task performance. Prior evidence suggests that these two types of effects may represent distinct transient and sustained (i.e., block-based) motivational influences on cognitive control (Jimura et al, 2010; Savine et al, 2010; Savine and Braver, 2012). Thus, we were also interested in examining whether motivational influences would be observed not only in transient (trial-evoked) increases in pupil dilation, but also in terms of sustained (tonic) effects.…”

Cognitive Training in Mental Disorders: Update and Future Directions

“…Factors linked to motivation, self-efficacy, and emotional state clearly play an important role in treatment response to CT. For example, it is known in healthy individuals that motivational state exerts both local and global neural effects on cognitive control operations, while a positive mood enhances prefrontal activation and facilitates creative problem-solving (74,75). Intrinsic motivation can best be fostered by providing a personalized context that links CT to goals of everyday life, and by fostering autonomy so that aspects of the training can be tailored to the learning style and goals of each participant (76).…”