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

Implicit Memories01:24

Implicit Memories

362
Implicit memories, also known as non-declarative memories, are long-term memories that function outside of conscious awareness. These memories influence behavior and skills without explicit knowledge. This type of memory is evident in tasks like playing tennis, snowboarding, and texting. Implicit memory has three subsystems: procedural memory, conditioning, and priming. This type of memory is essential in various activities, from everyday tasks to specialized skills.
One key aspect of implicit...
362
Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

372
E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a...
372
Reinforcement01:23

Reinforcement

722
Positive and negative reinforcement are key concepts in operant conditioning, a learning process where the consequences of a behavior affect the likelihood of that behavior being repeated.
Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus, increasing the frequency of that behavior. For example:
722
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

914
Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
914
Social Facilitation01:04

Social Facilitation

35.9K
Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
35.9K
Incentive Theory: Pull Theory of Motivation01:18

Incentive Theory: Pull Theory of Motivation

787
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...
787

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Cerebellar perturbation impairs human working memory and degrades spatial tuning throughout cortex.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Striatal Dopamine Actions and Movement: Inferences from Parkinson Disease.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2025
Same author

Dissociable Causal Roles of Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Primary Motor Cortex over the Course of Motor Skill Development.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2025
Same author

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) chase prey around obstacles in virtual environments.

Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983)·2025
Same author

Publisher Correction: Errors of attention adaptively warp spatial cognition.

Nature human behaviour·2025
Same author

Errors of attention adaptively warp spatial cognition.

Nature human behaviour·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum
07:52

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Published on: February 12, 2017

9.1K

Rewards interact with explicit knowledge to enhance skilled motor performance.

Sean P Anderson1,2,3, Tyler J Adkins1, Bradley S Gary1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Journal of Neurophysiology
|May 21, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Monetary rewards enhance skilled motor performance by increasing movement speed and improving motor planning for explicitly learned sequences. This demonstrates that incentives boost both motivational vigor and the ability to prepare actions in advance.

Keywords:
explicitimplicitmotor learningmotor skillsrewardsequence learning

More Related Videos

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice
06:04

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Published on: March 4, 2014

21.9K
The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task
10:39

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

Published on: May 3, 2018

8.9K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum
07:52

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Published on: February 12, 2017

9.1K
Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice
06:04

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Published on: March 4, 2014

21.9K
The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task
10:39

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

Published on: May 3, 2018

8.9K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Skilled motor tasks, like typing or playing music, rely on precise sequential movements.
  • Rewards are known to increase motivational vigor, enhancing movement speed and force.
  • The impact of rewards on motor planning and action selection in skilled tasks remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether performance-contingent monetary incentives improve motor planning in skilled motor sequencing tasks.
  • To differentiate the effects of rewards on movement execution versus motor planning.
  • To determine if explicit training and precues moderate the effects of rewards on motor skills.

Main Methods:

  • Human participants were trained on four motor sequences, two explicitly with precues and two implicitly.
  • Monetary incentives were introduced, and performance on all sequences was measured.
  • Results were replicated in a second preregistered experiment with an independent sample.

Main Results:

  • Participants showed improved performance across all sequences following the introduction of monetary incentives, consistent with increased motivational vigor.
  • A significantly larger performance boost was observed for explicitly trained sequences compared to implicitly trained ones.
  • These findings were consistently replicated in the second experiment.

Conclusions:

  • Monetary rewards enhance skilled motor performance through dual mechanisms: increasing motivational vigor and improving motor planning.
  • Explicitly trained sequences benefit more from reward-driven motor planning, suggesting rewards optimize the use of precued information.
  • The study clarifies that incentives not only energize action but also refine the preparatory processes underlying skilled motor behavior.