The effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on memory formation: insight from behavioral and imaging study

Hongxia Duan,Guillén Fernández,Eelco Van Dongen,Nils Kohn

doi:10.1007/s00429-020-02074-x

Abstract

Motivation can be generated intrinsically or extrinsically, and both kinds of motivation show similar facilitatory effects on memory. However, effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on memory formation have not been studied in combination and thus, it is unknown whether they interact and how such interplay is neurally implemented. In the present study, both extrinsic monetary reward and intrinsic curiosity enhanced memory performance, without evidence for an interaction. Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that curiosity-driven activity in the ventral striatal reward network appears to work cooperatively with the fronto-parietal attention network, while enhancing memory formation. In contrast, the monetary reward-modulated subsequent memory effect revealed deactivation in parietal midline regions. Thus, curiosity might enhance memory performance by allocation of attentional resources and reward-related processes; while, monetary reward does so by suppression of task-irrelevant processing.

Highlights

The challenge of how to stimulate students’ motivation to learn has always been one of the central topics of education
Should children be rewarded to achieve a high grade or be motivated from within themselves to seek out unknown information? The former relies on extrinsic motivation, which refers to doing things for the sake of obtaining an externally tangible reward such as good grades, praise, or money
We investigated the effect of curiosity and monetary reward on memory performance with prior knowledge level controlled

Summary

Introduction

The challenge of how to stimulate students’ motivation to learn has always been one of the central topics of education. The former relies on extrinsic motivation, which refers to doing things for the sake of obtaining an externally tangible reward such as good grades, praise, or money. The latter, intrinsic motivation, refers to doing things following an internal desire such as curiosity. Dopaminergic midbrain regions (e.g., substantia nigra/ ventral tegmental area: SN/VTA) and their striatal projections, especially to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) are thought to support reward anticipation (Zellner and Ranaldi 2010) and declarative memory formation depends on the medial temporal lobe (MTL) with the hippocampus at its core (Squire et al 2004). Evidence from human and animal studies supports the view that the MTL memory system and the striatal reward system comprise a functional loop (Lisman and Grace 2005; Rossato et al 2009) in which the VTA and NAcc modulate medial temporal activity underlying successful memory formation (Adcock et al 2006; Bunzeck et al 2012; Wittmann et al 2005)

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion