{"title":"Resurrecting the \"black-box\" conundrum.","authors":"Patricia A Alexander","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000451","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000451","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In their article, Murayama and Jach contend that a mental computational model demonstrates that high-level motivations are emergent properties from underlying cognitive processes rather than instigators of behaviors. Despite points of agreement with the authors' critiques of the motivation literature, I argue that their claim of dismantling the black box of the human mind has been constructed on shaking grounds.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e26"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The role of metacognitive feelings in motivation.","authors":"Rolf Reber, Josefine Haugen, Liva J Martinussen","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000359","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000359","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Metacognitive feelings are an integral part of mental computational processes and influence the outcome of computations. We review supporting evidence on affect inherent in perceptual processes, fluency in study decisions, metacognitive feelings in aha-experiences and intuition, and affect in early phases of interest development. These findings connect to recent theories that combine metacognitive feelings with computational models.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e40"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Postcard from inside the black box.","authors":"David Spurrett","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000578","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000578","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>There are indeed questionable motivation constructs in psychology. The diagnosis and proposed remedies in the target article both neglect the crucial consideration that all tendencies to behaviour compete for the same finite set of degrees of freedom. Action selection also has irreducibly economic aspects which should constrain motivation constructs and already inform healthy research programmes.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e45"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Response to the critiques (and encouragements) on our critique of motivation constructs.","authors":"Kou Murayama, Hayley Jach","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24001353","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24001353","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The target article argued that motivation constructs are treated as black boxes and called for work that specifies the mental computational processes underlying motivated behavior. In response to critical commentaries, we clarify our philosophical standpoint, elaborate on the meaning of mental computational processes and why past work was not sufficient, and discuss the opportunities to expand the scope of the framework.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e50"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Motivational whack-a-mole: Foundational boxes cannot be unpacked.","authors":"Ezgi Ozgan, Jedediah W P Allen","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000517","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000517","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The proposed \"black-box\" problem and its solution are drawn from the same substance-oriented framework. This framework's assumptions have consequences that re-create the black-box problem at a foundational level. Specifically, Murayama and Jach's solution fails to explain novel behavior that emerges through an organism's development. A process-oriented theoretical shift provides an ontological explanation for emergent behavior and eliminates the black-box problem altogether.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e38"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Expectancy value theory's contribution to unpacking the black box of motivation.","authors":"Jacquelynne S Eccles, Allan Wigfield","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000475","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000475","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although in basic agreement with Murayama and Jach's call for greater attention to the black boxes underlying motivated behavior, we provide examples of our published suggestions regarding how subjective task value (and ability self-concepts) \"gets into people's knowledge structures.\" We suggest additional mental computational processes to investigate and call for a developmental and situated individual differences approach to this work.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e32"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adopt process-oriented models (if they're more useful).","authors":"Brendan A Schuetze, Luke D Rutten","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000372","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000372","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Though we see the potential for benefits from the development of process-oriented approaches, we argue that it falls prey to many of the same critiques raised about the existing construct level of analysis. The construct-level approach will likely dominate motivation research until we develop computational models that are not only accurate, but also broadly usable.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e43"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Don't throw motivation out with the black box: The value of a good theory revisited.","authors":"Jutta Heckhausen, Falko Rheinberg","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000347","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000347","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Murayama and Jach claim that current motivational constructs do not specify causal processes (<i>black-box problem</i>) and that <i>mental computational processes</i> solve this problem. We argue, process-focused research requires theoretical frameworks addressing situational variations, individual differences, and their interaction. Classic achievement motivation theory provides comprehensive models with empirically measurable process-related constructs and predictions. Recent developments build on this, addressing motivation, action, and their socio-cultural and lifespan context. Theory-free <i>mental computational processes</i> cannot do any of that.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e35"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"There's no such thing as a free lunch: A computational perspective on the costs of motivation.","authors":"Eliana Vassena, Jacqueline Gottlieb","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X2400058X","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X2400058X","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding the psychological computations underlying motivation can shed light onto motivational constructs as emergent phenomena. According to Murayama and Jach, reward-learning is a key candidate mechanism. However, there's no such thing as a free lunch: Not only benefits (like reward), but also costs inherent to motivated behaviors (like effort, or uncertainty) are an essential part of the picture.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e47"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond reductionism: Understanding motivational energization requires higher-order constructs.","authors":"Kennon M Sheldon, Richard M Ryan","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000438","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S0140525X24000438","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We argue that the target article's computational/reductionistic approach to motivation is insufficient to explain the energization of human behavior, because such explanation requires broad consideration of \"what people are trying to do.\" We illustrate what is gained by retaining (rather than jettisoning) higher-order motivation constructs and show that the authors' approach assumes, but fails to name, such constructs.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"48 ","pages":"e44"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143063203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}