Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Incentive Theory: Pull Theory of Motivation01:18

Incentive Theory: Pull Theory of Motivation

1.4K
Incentive theory, or the "pull theory" of motivation, suggests that external rewards primarily drive behavior. Individuals are motivated to engage in activities when they anticipate a desirable outcome. This is why people often work hard for promotions or study intensively to achieve high grades. These incentives can be tangible, physical rewards such as money or promotions, or intangible, non-physical rewards like praise and social recognition.
The theory differentiates between...
1.4K
Timing and Consequences on Behavior01:08

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

708
In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective. 
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant...
708
Persuasion Strategies01:52

Persuasion Strategies

44.0K
Researchers have tested many persuasion strategies, including the foot-in-the door and the door-in-the-face techniques, in a variety of contexts. Ultimately, the principles are effective in selling products and changing people’s attitude, ideas, and behaviors (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).
44.0K
Framing Effects03:26

Framing Effects

8.1K
Information is everywhere and its presentation—such as how and when items are presented—can impact our perceptions and decisions surrounding the info. This broad concept umbrellas framing effects—influences that occur due to the way information is framed in its appearance, whether it’s purely the order or the specific wording of a message. Let’s take a look at numerous ways in which two versions of something can objectively say the same thing, yet we respond in...
8.1K
Operant Conditioning01:21

Operant Conditioning

3.4K
Operant conditioning, a key concept in behavioral psychology, involves using reinforcement and punishment to alter the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. B.F. introduced this type of conditioning. Skinner focused on voluntary behaviors and the consequences that follow them, influencing whether these behaviors will be strengthened or diminished.
Reinforcement in operant conditioning can be positive or negative, both of which serve to increase the likelihood of a behavior. Positive...
3.4K
The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic01:25

The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic

7.9K
In order to make good decisions, we use our knowledge and our reasoning. Often, this knowledge and reasoning is sound and solid. However, sometimes, we are swayed by biases or by others manipulating a situation. For example, let’s say you and three friends wanted to rent a house and had a combined target budget of $1,600. The realtor shows you only very run-down houses for $1,600 and then shows you a very nice house for $2,000. Might you ask each person to pay more in rent to get the...
7.9K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Distinct Attentional Control Profiles during Language Comprehension in Major Mental Health Disorders.

Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging·2026
Same author

Impacted and preserved sub-domains of cognitive control in schizophrenia.

Neuropsychologia·2026
Same author

Evaluating the effects of regularization and cross-validation parameters on the performance of SVM-based decoding of EEG data.

Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior·2026
Same author

A population vector model of visual working memory for real-world scenes.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2026
Same author

Prior Trial Effects on Working Memory in Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Healthy Control Individuals.

JAMA psychiatry·2026
Same author

Increased Reporting of Speech in Degraded Stimuli in Schizophrenia: A Case Control Study with Sine-Wave-Speech.

Schizophrenia bulletin·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 7, 2026

Pavlovian Conditioned Approach Training in Rats
06:57

Pavlovian Conditioned Approach Training in Rats

Published on: February 4, 2016

11.7K

How Attention Changes in Response to Incentives.

Risa Sawaki1,2, Steven J Luck1, Jane E Raymond2

  • 1University of California, Davis.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|July 8, 2015
PubMed
Summary

Incentives enhance cognitive task performance by altering attention and readiness mechanisms. The brain actively suppresses attention to high-incentive cues, increases visual readiness, and reduces effort during search for rewards.

More Related Videos

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
12:09

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

Published on: March 19, 2014

24.4K
The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice
09:15

The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice

Published on: February 4, 2015

28.8K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 7, 2026

Pavlovian Conditioned Approach Training in Rats
06:57

Pavlovian Conditioned Approach Training in Rats

Published on: February 4, 2016

11.7K
Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
12:09

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

Published on: March 19, 2014

24.4K
The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice
09:15

The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice

Published on: February 4, 2015

28.8K

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Motivational control of cognitive performance is crucial but poorly understood.
  • Previous research suggests incentives improve task outcomes, but underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how reward-associated incentive stimuli modulate attention and readiness mechanisms.
  • To elucidate the neural processes underlying incentive-driven enhancements in cognitive task performance.

Main Methods:

  • Electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from human adults.
  • Participants viewed high- or low-incentive cues, underwent a preparation interval, and performed a visual search task.
  • Analysis focused on incentive-related EEG/ERP patterns during cue presentation, preparation, and search phases.

Main Results:

  • Search performance was significantly faster with high incentives compared to low incentives.
  • High-incentive cues led to suppressed attention (indexed by the PD component) during cue presentation.
  • Reduced alpha-band oscillations during preparation indicated heightened visual readiness after high-incentive cues.
  • Attentional orienting during search was less effortful for high-incentive trials (indexed by reduced N2pc component).

Conclusions:

  • Incentives trigger a specific neural sequence to optimize cognitive performance.
  • The brain actively manages attention and readiness through distinct neural patterns in response to reward cues.
  • Executive control mechanisms dynamically adjust processing systems to enhance performance based on incentive value.