The role of rewards in motivation—Beyond dichotomies

Background

A vast amount of research has examined how extrinsic rewards influence motivation in learning. Whereas some studies have indicated that rewards are beneficial for increasing students’ motivation, others have argued that rewards undermine motivation, especially so-called intrinsic motivation.

Method

We conducted a narrative review, building on the reward-learning framework of knowledge acquisition. We argue that the two perspectives do not actually contradict each other and that researchers should look beyond the simple dichotomy of whether rewards are good or bad for motivation.

Results and conclusions

Rewards may be conceptualized as either extrinsic incentives (i.e., extrinsic rewards) or internal positive feelings that arise from the learning process or from knowledge acquisition itself (i.e., intrinsic rewards). Importantly, the reward-learning framework of knowledge acquisition suggests the possibility of motivation transformations in that extrinsic rewards can serve as an “entry point” for engagement, thus helping students start up the positive feedback loop of internally rewarding learning processes. However, once such a positive feedback loop has been established, extrinsic incentives could interrupt the process, potentially undermining long-term engagement. We outline several mechanisms that may transmit motivation transformations and related future research directions. Our discussions are enriched with references to gamification and educational videogames.