The effect of reward and voluntary choice on the motor learning of serial reaction time task

Reward and voluntary choice facilitate motor skill learning through motivation. However, it remains unclear how their combination influences motor skill learning. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effects of reward and voluntary choice on motor skill learning in a serial reaction time task (SRTT).

Participants completed six parts of SRTT, including pre-test, training phase, immediate post-test, a random session, delayed post-test, and retention test on the following day. During the training phase, participants were divided into four groups (reward_choice, reward_no-choice, no-reward_choice, no-reward_no-choice). In the reward condition, participants received reward for correct and faster (than a baseline) responses while those in the no-reward groups did not. For the choice manipulation, participants in the voluntary choice groups chose the color of the target, whereas in the forced choice groups, the same color was assigned by the computer.

The results showed that the four groups did not exhibit any significant differences in reaction time and error rate in the pre-test phase. Importantly, both reward and voluntary choice significantly enhanced sequence-specific learning effects, while no interaction was found. No significant effects of reward and voluntary choice were observed in the retention test.

These findings suggest that reward and voluntary choice enhance motor skill performance and training independently, potentially at the action-selection level, which implies different mechanisms underlying the influences of reward and voluntary choice.