Reward Improves Long-Term Retention of a Motor Memory through Induction of Offline Memory Gains

Abstract

Summary In humans, training in which good performance is rewarded or bad performance punished results in transient behavioral improvements [1–3]. Their relative effects on consolidation and long-term retention, critical behavioral stages for successful learning [4, 5], are not known. Here, we investigated the effects of reward and punishment on these different stages of human motor skill learning. We studied healthy subjects who trained on a motor task under rewarded, punished, or neutral control conditions. Performance was tested before, and immediately, 6 hs, 24 hs and 30 days after training in the absence of reward or punishment. Performance improvements immediately after training were comparable in the three groups. At 6 hs, the rewarded group maintained performance gains while the other two groups experienced significant forgetting. At 24 hs, the reward group showed significant offline (posttraining) improvements while the other two groups did not. At 30 days, the rewarded group retained the gains identified at 24 hs, while the other two groups experienced significant forgetting. We conclude that training under rewarded conditions is more effective than training under punished or neutral conditions in eliciting lasting motor learning, an advantage driven by offline memory gains that persist over time.

Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning

“…For instance, the prospect of a monetary incentive has been shown to improve movement performance in persons with Parkinson's disease (Kojovic, Mir, Trender-Gerhard, Schneider, Pareés, Edwards et al, 2014;Kühn, Brücke, Hübl, Schneider, Kupsch, Eusebio et al, 2008) and to increase force production in healthy participants (Pessiglione, Schmidt, Draganski, Kalisch, Lau, Dolan et al, 2007). Abe and colleagues (Abe et al, 2011) found that a group receiving monetary rewards for good performance on a tracking task during practice showed more effective learning than a group that was punished for poor performance (by having money deducted) or a control group. Interestingly, all groups demonstrated similar performances immediately after the practice phase.…”

Sleep restriction can attenuate prioritization benefits on declarative memory consolidation

“…For instance, cues signalling subsequent reward are better remembered than neutral cues (Wittmann et al ., 2005), as are cues signalling high‐value relative to low‐value reward (Adcock et al ., 2006). At least one study suggests that these reward effects may be long‐lasting, demonstrating an enhancing effect of reward on motor memory that arose by 6 h after training, was strengthened 24 h after training and persisted 30 days after training (Abe et al ., 2011). It is not known if reward has similar lasting effects on declarative memory, and whether reward affects memory for stimuli similar to those encountered in educational or vocational settings (e.g.…”

Influence of reward motivation on human declarative memory

“…In sum, reward motivation may have distinct effects for short and long-term memory, with more pronounced differences coming into light at longer retention intervals that include off-line replay (Box 2), which favorably protects reward-linked memories from forgetting (Abe et al, 2011).…”