| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 948198 | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology | 2011 | 5 Pages |
Monetary rewards facilitate performance on behavioral and cognitive tasks, even when these rewards are perceived without conscious awareness. Also, recent research suggests that consciously (vs. unconsciously) perceived rewards may prompt people to more strongly concentrate on task stimuli and details. Here we propose that the latter is sometimes dysfunctional, in that it prevents improvements in task performance. We used an Attentional Blink paradigm, in which such enhanced concentration on task stimuli is detrimental to performance. Participants were consciously (supraliminally) or unconsciously (subliminally) exposed to a high-value or low-value coin that they could earn by performing well on an Attentional Blink trial. As hypothesized, high-value rewards increased performance when they were presented subliminally, while this performance benefit vanished when high-value rewards were presented consciously. We discuss this finding in the context of recent research on unconscious goal pursuit.
Research Highlights► Rewards, whether conscious or not, normally improve task performance. ► Only when conscious, rewards may increase concentration on task details. ► In Attentional Blink tasks, concentration paradoxically hurts performance. ► We tested the effects of rewards on the Attentional Blink. ► Unconscious rewards improved performance, but conscious rewards did not.
