Money versus performance feedback: money associated with lower feelings of cognitive fatigue

Abstract

Objective: Prior research suggests that effort and reward are central to cognitive fatigue. To better understand the influence of reward on cognitive fatigue, this study examined the effect of reward type and frequency on cognitive fatigue. Participants and Methods: In an online between-subjects study, 400 participants completed a computerized switching task and were randomly sorted into one of the five possible groups based on reward condition: [1] infrequent money, [2] frequent money, [3] infrequent performance-feedback, [4] frequent performance feedback, and [5] no-reward. Cognitive fatigue was assessed using the Visual Analog Scale for Fatigue (VAS-F) during the task. Mixed effects models were used to estimate the influence of reward type and frequency on task performance and cognitive fatigue. Results: We found that participants in the monetary groups were significantly faster (p