ABSTRACT
Three decades aga it was rather revolutionary and shocking to emphasize the cognitive or informative aspect of re ward in human learning. On the contrary, in current psychological research cognitive interpretations have be co me fashionable, with the result that Right and Wrong are often presented to the subjects as me re cues signaling which responses are to be learned and which are not; the reward aspect of the successful outcome for all practical purposes is neglected. Therefore, in this chapter I propose to link the motivational and informational aspects of outcomes in learning tasks because I am convinced that, in the context of current cognitive ps ychology, these aspects of beha vior are too often disassociated from one another. In fact, I assume that humans are at the same time cognizing their world and in search of objects satisfying their cognitively elaborated needs. The conceptualization of human behavior in terms of open-task systems may be useful in interpreting cognition and motivation. processes that pervade every behavioral act. inc\uding those of learning.
