Immediate and sustaining effects of extrinsic rewards on specific exploratory behavior

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the immediate and sustaining effects of monetary and social rewards on specific exploratory behavior. Specific exploratory behavior was conceived as a behavioral expression of intrinsic motivation and was measured by the number of additional requests for viewing blurred tachistoscopically presented slides of varying degrees of uncertainty. The results of the study showed that when monetary and social rewards were presented contingent on performance, exploration increased at the upper levels of uncertainty above a control group. It was also found that after removal, females who had previously received social rewards sustained a significantly higher level of exploration above the control group, while males who had previously received social rewards, as well as both males and females who had previously received monetary rewards, did not differ significantly from the control. The discrepany between these findings and previous findings is explained in terms of theoretical differences in defining and measuring intrinsic motivation.