Effect of incentives upon reactions to peripheral stimuli

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that an increase in incentive results in increased perceptual selectiveness favoring those parts of the stimulus field interpreted by the S as most relevant to the expected reward, a modified pursuit apparatus was used as a continuous central-tracking task. A low-incentive condition was produced by telling Ss that the trials were practice, and the high-incentive condition was produced by offering a sliding-scale bonus of money for good performance. The results were in agreement with the prediction that a high-incentive condition facilitates performance of a central task, but generally interferes with the performance of peripheral tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1952 American Psychological Association.