Prospect of performance-contingent reward distorts the action relevance of predictive context information.

Abstract

There is much evidence showing that the prospect of performance-contingent reward increases the usage of cuing information and cognitive stability. In a recent study, we showed that participants under reward conditions even continued using cues even when they were no longer predictive of the required response rule, even at the expense of higher errors feedback. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying this maladaptive perseveration. One possible mechanism was that participants under reward conditions use cue-related stimulus frequencies even when they are not indicative of response rule frequencies. In a series of 3 experiments, using modified versions of the classical AX-continuous performance task, this hypothesis was confirmed. Taken together, the findings have important implications, as they show that the prospect of performance-contingent reward encourages the selective usage of any information that might be relevant for preparatory behavior. And this reward-induced cue usage persists until the cuing information loses any predictive information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).