ArticleScientific reports2019
A Pavlovian account for paradoxical effects of motivation on controlling response vigour.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trajectory dynamics and endpoint accuracy in targeted ballistic contractions.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Computational signatures of exertion and rest underlie moment-to-moment dynamics of subjective perceptions of effort and fatigue.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- How visual and proprioceptive feedback mediate the effect of monetary incentive on motor precision.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2025Article
- Occupational burnout, flourishing and job satisfaction among HIV/AIDS healthcare workers in Western China: a network analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Preserved Unconscious Processing in Schizophrenia: The Case of Motivation.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2022Article
- A computational account of why more valuable goals seem to require more effortful actions.eLife · 2022Article
- A mosaic of cost-benefit control over cortico-striatal circuitry.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
In high stakes situations, people sometimes choke under pressure, performing below their abilities. Here, we suggest a novel mechanism to account for this paradoxical effect of motivation: the automatic adjustment of action vigour to potential reward. Although adaptive on average, this mechanism may impede fine motor control. Such detrimental effect was observed in three studies (n = 74 in total), using behavioural tasks where payoff depended on the precision of handgrip squeezing or golf putting. Participants produced more force for higher incentives, which aggravated their systematic overshooting of low-force targets. This reward bias was specific to action vigour, as reward did not alter action timing, direction or variability across trials. Although participants could report their reward bias, they somehow failed to limit their produced force. Such an automatic link between incentive and force level might correspond to a Pavlovian response that is counterproductive when action vigour is not instrumental for maximizing reward.
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