Development of Monetary and Social Reward Processes.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Reward processing is crucial for decision-making and motivation across development.
• Understanding age and sex differences in response to monetary versus social rewards is important.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how monetary and social rewards influence response times and errors in children, adolescents, and adults.
• To compare the incentive power of monetary and social rewards across different age groups and sexes.

Main Methods:

• Adapted incentive-delay tasks and self-report questionnaires were used.
• Participants (children, adolescents, adults) completed tasks with no, low, and high reward magnitudes.
• Monetary (15 Chinese Yuan) and social (honor certificate) rewards were administered.

Main Results:

• Both reward types accelerated responses as magnitude increased across all age groups.
• Males (adolescents, adults) showed faster responses to high vs. low rewards; females did not.
• Children's girls responded faster to high vs. low rewards; boys made more errors, especially for social rewards.

Conclusions:

• Males in adolescent and adult groups demonstrated greater reward sensitivity than females.
• Tangible social rewards possessed stronger incentive power than monetary rewards for children and adolescents.
• Reward magnitude and type differentially impact performance across developmental stages and sexes.