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Assessing motivation in children using a progressive ratio task
John J Chelonis1, Claire R Gravelin, Merle G Paule
1Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, FDA, United States. John.chelonis@fda.hhs.gov
Insights
Children's motivation, assessed via a progressive ratio task, increases with age and is higher in boys than girls. Older children showed higher breakpoints due to faster response times, highlighting age and sex influences on motivation.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral science
- Child psychology
- Animal behavior models
Background:
- Progressive ratio tasks are used to study motivation in humans and animals.
- Understanding motivational factors in children is crucial for developmental research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of age and sex on children's performance in a progressive ratio task.
- To examine how motivational aspects differ across age groups and between sexes in children.
Main Methods:
- 847 children (ages 4-14) performed a 10-minute progressive ratio task for nickel reinforcers.
- Task involved increasing response requirements for each successive reinforcer.
- Key metrics included breakpoint and inter-response time.
Main Results:
- Older children achieved significantly higher breakpoints than younger children.
- Older children exhibited significantly shorter inter-response times.
- Boys demonstrated significantly higher breakpoints than girls, particularly in older age groups.
Conclusions:
- Age and sex significantly influence performance on progressive ratio tasks in children.
- Findings suggest age and sex impact motivational processes in childhood.
- Human performance data enhances translational utility for animal model comparisons.
Abstract:
The association of age and sex on the performance of a progressive ratio task was studied in 847 children, ages 4-14 years. Variations of this task have been used extensively with animals and to a lesser extent with humans to study factors that affect aspects of motivation. The participants in this study were required to press a response lever for nickel reinforcers during a 10 min period. One response was required to earn the first nickel and each subsequent nickel required an additional 10 more responses. Older children had a significantly higher breakpoint than younger children. This appeared to be mostly the result of older children having significantly shorter inter-response times than younger children. In addition, boys had significantly higher breakpoints than girls, especially at older ages. The results of this study illustrate that both age and sex influence the performance of this task and thus suggest that age and sex influence aspects of motivation in children. Further, characterization of performance of this task by humans facilitates comparisons with animal models and, thus, enhances its translational utility.
