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A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats

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Reward-driven distraction: A meta-analysis.

Dorottya Rusz¹, Mike E Le Pelley², Michiel A J Kompier¹

¹Behavioural Science Institute.

Psychological Bulletin

|July 21, 2020

Summary

Reward cues, even when irrelevant, impair cognitive performance. This meta-analysis of 91 studies confirms that reward-related distractors negatively impact tasks across various settings, highlighting attention

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Humans exhibit a strong attentional bias towards reward cues.
Goal-irrelevant reward cues can negatively affect cognitive functioning and task performance.

Purpose of the Study:

To quantitatively assess the impact of reward-related distractors on cognitive performance.
To synthesize findings from the growing body of research on reward distraction.

Main Methods:

Meta-analysis of 91 studies involving 2,362 participants.
Inclusion of diverse cognitive paradigms (e.g., visual search, conflict processing) and reward stimuli (e.g., money, food).

Main Results:

Reward-related distractors significantly impaired cognitive performance across tasks and stimuli (standardized mean change = .347).
Large between-study heterogeneity suggests occasional performance-boosting effects.
The distraction effect was robust across different learning mechanisms, contexts, and instructions.

Conclusions:

Cognitive processes are demonstrably hindered by the presence of reward cues.
Findings have implications for understanding distraction in clinical, educational, and work psychology.