The University of New South Wales, Australia.
The University of New South Wales, Australia.
Biol Psychol. 2020 Jul;154:107910. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107910. Epub 2020 May 28.
Past psychological theory and research suggest two opposing relationships between effort and reward valuation. Cognitive dissonance theory and research suggest that increased effort is associated with increased reward valuation, whereas theory and research on effort discounting suggest that increased effort is associated with decreased reward valuation. The present study was designed to test these two opposing perspectives, by examining a potential moderator of the relationship between effort and reward valuation - the belief that the effort was necessary to obtain the reward. Results (n = 44) suggested that increased perceptions of effort following a task were associated with larger neural responses to rewards (as assessed by the event-related potential referred to as the reward positivity) when individuals believed that their effort led to the reward but not when they believed that their effort did not lead to the reward. Discussion considers the implications of these results.
过去的心理学理论和研究表明，努力与回报评估之间存在两种相反的关系。认知失调理论和研究表明，付出更多的努力会导致回报评估的增加，而努力折扣理论和研究则表明，付出更多的努力会导致回报评估的减少。本研究旨在通过检验努力与回报评估之间关系的一个潜在调节因素——即相信努力是获得回报的必要条件，来检验这两种相反的观点。结果（n=44）表明，当个体认为自己的努力导致了回报时，他们在完成任务后对努力的感知增加，与对回报的神经反应（通过事件相关电位即奖励正波来评估）更大；而当他们认为自己的努力没有导致回报时，则没有这种关系。讨论考虑了这些结果的含义。
