Eyes on the prize: Reward outranks punishment in working memory resources allocation

Working memory (WM) plays a pivotal role in cognitive processes; yet, its resources are strictly limited, making it crucial to understand how these resources are allocated. Motivation, such as reward and punishment, has been widely recognized as a key factor influencing WM. Previous research has either examined the impacts of reward and punishment on the availability of WM resources separately or focused solely on the effects of reward on resource allocation. We posit that integrating these effects into a single study is essential for a comprehensive understanding of their interplay. To this end, we conducted three experiments using a delay estimation task, combined with the Target Confusability Competition model, to systematically investigate how reward and punishment affect the availability and allocation of WM resources. In Experiment 1, participants memorized the orientations of two arrows, each associated with reward or punishment cues. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants encountered both reward and punishment cues within the same trial, testing three hypotheses about resource allocation: reward dominance, punishment dominance, and no difference. Results from Experiment 1 revealed that reward and punishment equally enhanced the availability of WM resources. In Experiment 2, which was the first to integrate rewards and punishments within the same trial, reward prioritized the allocation of WM resources over punishment. Eye-tracking data from Experiment 3 indicated that this effect was driven by greater attentional focus on reward targets, which led to more WM resource allocation. We provide novel evidence that reward outweighs punishment in WM resource allocation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).