ABSTRACT
Understanding how reward modulates human behavior and information processing has been a core challenge for psychologists for decades. In recent years an increasing number of studies started to investigate the effects of reward on cognitive control as well. These studies demonstrated that reward modulates task switching, conflict adaptation, response inhibition, memory, visual search, proactive control, and so on. However, the direction of these results remains ambiguous. While most of these studies demonstrate performance benefits following reward, other studies have showed detrimental effects of reward on information processing. For instance, Hickey, Chelazzi, and Theeuwes (2010) showed that rewarded stimulus features capture attention even when counterproductive. Moreover, contradictory reward-based modulations have been described. For instance, while Braem, Verguts, Roggeman, and Notebaert (2012) observed increased conflict adaptation (see also Braem, Hickey, Duthoo, & Notebaert, in press; Stürmer, Nigbur, Schacht, & Sommer, 2011), van Steenbergen, Band, and Hommel (2009, 2012) observed decreased conflict adaptation following reward. It should be clear that we are currently in need of a new framework, a point that has also been raised in recent review articles by Chiew and Braver (2011) and Dreisbach and Fischer (2012). In this chapter, we provide such a framework on the basis of a proposition by Berridge and Robinson (2003).
