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Rodent Brain Microinjection to Study Molecular Substrates of Motivated Behavior

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Published on: September 16, 2015

Monetary incentives modulate serial dependences from memories and responses.

Liwen Qian¹, Yurong Sun², Yixuan Ku²

¹Educational Development Research Center of Southern Xinjiang, School of Education Science, Kashi University.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance

|April 23, 2026

Summary

Monetary incentives significantly influence cognitive biases. Prior responses linked to nonreward or loss exert a stronger attraction on subsequent actions than rewarded ones.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Decision Making

Background:

Reward and punishment are fundamental to cognitive processes.
Understanding how incentives shape sequential decision-making is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of monetary incentives on serial biases in an orientation reproduction task.
To differentiate between biases toward targets and responses under incentive conditions.

Main Methods:

An orientation reproduction task was employed with monetary incentives.
Two experiments were conducted with varying incentive conditions (n=20, n=36).
Analyses focused on biases toward prior target orientations and response angles.

Main Results:

Prior target orientation influenced responses when memory was good.
Biases toward prior response angles were consistently significant.
Incentives amplified the distinction between target and response biases.
Poor prior responses (nonreward/loss) showed stronger attraction for subsequent responses.

Conclusions:

Monetary incentives, particularly nonreward and loss, significantly modulate serial response biases.
Prior response outcomes, especially negative ones, exert a potent influence on subsequent choices.
This highlights the intricate role of reward and punishment in shaping cognitive trajectories.