Reward Status Research Articles

Decision Support System For Employee Performance Assessment To Determine The Status Of Reward Level Operator And Foreman Using Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (Anfis)

Employees are required to have a good work ethic in order to advance their company. This causes many companies to motivate their employees in various ways. The general goal is for better and more stable employee performance so that it benefits the company. Rewards are given to employees who excel and are able to achieve certain targets, this is more effective in motivating employees than punishment so that it can be a source of motivation for employees to work optimally. In giving rewards, sometimes employees do not match the results of their performance and without applying good calculations. For that we need a recommendation system to support employee performance appraisal to get rewards. One of the methods used is the Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) method. This method was chosen because it is able to complete employee performance appraisals based on predetermined criteria and is used as a reference in giving rewards. The amount of data obtained and will be used is a number of 537 employee data which will be divided into two data, namely training data which functions as a model of 524 data and test data which functions to test the system of 13 data. The training set uses a regression algorithm to form an employee performance appraisal model. This model is a representation of knowledge that will be used to predict the reward status of operator and foreman level employees

Association of flower color with pollen reward may explain increased bumblebee visitation to the Scotch broom yellow morph

Given that pollinators usually visit flowers for hidden rewards, they need to rely on floral traits that indicate reward status (“honest signals”). However, the relationship between pollination, honest signals, and floral rewards is little documented in natural conditions. The Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) is an invasive shrub with polymorphism in the color of its flowers that can be yellow, orange, or red. In three areas dominated by the Scotch broom, we described the abundance of the floral morphs and estimated bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) visitation rate. We examined whether bumblebee visitation to the floral morphs was related to pollen reward. We collected flowers and classified their stamens according to their function: reward or pollen export. Then, we measured anther size and estimated pollen quantity. The yellow morph was more abundant and more visited by bumblebees than the orange and red morphs. The yellow flowers did indeed offer more pollen than the other morphs and this occurred only for rewarding anthers, suggesting that bumblebees could use yellow color as an honest signal to visit the most rewarding flowers. We discuss whether innate and/or learned preferences of bumblebees can explain why the yellow morph is more visited, pollinated, and abundant, while the other morphs are maintained at a lower frequency. This is one of the few field works that shows that variation in intra-specific floral traits is associated with variation in floral reward and pollinator visitation rate, helping to understand the foraging preferences of pollinators and the coexistence of floral morphs in nature. Clinical trials registration: Not applicable.

Paradoxical changes in brain reward status during oxycodone self-administration in a novel test of the negative reinforcement hypothesis.

The extra medical use of, and addiction to, prescription opioid analgesics is a growing health problem. To characterize how prescription opioid abuse develops, this study investigated the affective consequences of escalating prescription opioid use using intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) reward and oxycodone intravenous self-administration (IVSA) models. Male Wistar rats were given access to oxycodone IVSA (0.15 mg·kg-1 per infusion, i.v.) in short-access (ShA; 1 h) or long-access (LgA; 12 h) sessions for five sessions per week followed by intermittent 60-h discontinuations from drug access, a novel explicit test of the negative reinforcement hypothesis. Separate groups were first trained in the ICSS procedure and then in oxycodone IVSA in 11-h LgA sessions. Rats given LgA to oxycodone escalated their responding more than ShA rats, with further significant increases observed following each 60-h discontinuation. Presession brain reward thresholds increased with sequential daily LgA IVSA sessions, consistent with a growing negative affective state consequent to successive daily intoxication/abstinence cycles. A 1-h oxycodone IVSA interval was sufficient to normalize these elevated reward thresholds, as was, paradoxically, a 60-h weekend abstinence. The increase in ICSS thresholds was attenuated in a group treated with the long-acting κ-opioid antagonist norbinaltorphimine prior to IVSA training. Changes in brain reward function during escalation of oxycodone self-administration are driven by an interplay between κ-opioid receptor-mediated negative affective state associated with escalated oxycodone intake and dynamic restoration of brain reward status during longer periods of abstinence.

Noisy communities and signal detection: why do foragers visit rewardless flowers?

Floral communities present complex and shifting resource landscapes for flower-foraging animals. Strong similarities among the floral displays of different plant species, paired with high variability in reward distributions across time and space, can weaken correlations between floral signals and reward status. As a result, it should be difficult for foragers to discriminate between rewarding and rewardless flowers. Building on signal detection theory in behavioural ecology, we use hypothetical probability density functions to examine graphically how plant signals pose challenges to forager decision-making. We argue that foraging costs associated with incorrect acceptance of rewardless flowers and incorrect rejection of rewarding ones interact with community-level reward availability to determine the extent to which rewardless and rewarding species should overlap in flowering time. We discuss the evolutionary consequences of these phenomena from both the forager and the plant perspectives. This article is part of the theme issue 'Signal detection theory in recognition systems: from evolving models to experimental tests'.

Lo esencial es invisible a los ojos (humanos): patrones UV explican la mayor tasa de visita de los polinizadores a las flores amarillas del arbusto Cytisus scoparius

A menudo, los polinizadores emplean los colores de las flores como senales indirectas del status de la recompensa. Sin embargo, los visitantes florales pueden percibir patrones del espectro cromatico invisibles para el ojo humano. Cytisus scoparius (retama) es un arbusto abundante en bosques perturbados del NO de la Patagonia que presenta variacion intra-especifica en el color de sus flores. Nosotros evaluamos si la mayor tasa de visita de los polinizadores a las flores amarillas, previamente documentada, es consecuencia de un patron UV mas atractivo en este morfo. Contamos cada 4 dias a lo largo de tres semanas el numero de visitas a flores amarillas y rojas rociadas con bloqueador solar (bloqueando el espectro UV), flores sin bloqueador (control) y flores con bloqueador en su pedicelo (para controlar posibles efectos indeseados del bloqueador, como el olor). El efecto del bloqueador solar en los petalos de las flores amarillas redujo la tasa de visita desde la primera medicion. Al final del muestreo, las flores amarillas con bloqueador en sus petalos fueron visitadas 7 veces menos que las flores control. Sin embargo, el efecto del bloqueador sobre los petalos de las flores rojas recien fue evidente al final del muestreo, reduciendo la tasa de visita solo 3 veces. Estos resultados sugieren que ambos morfos florales poseen patrones UV y que estos patrones atraen polinizadores, pero que su presencia estimula mas visitas en las flores amarillas que en las rojas. Esto puede deberse a que el espectro UV es mas contrastante en fondos amarillos que rojos. Finalmente, las flores amarillas y rojas con bloqueador solar en sus petalos tuvieron una tasa de visita similar, sugiriendo que los polinizadores se ven mas atraidos hacia las flores amarillas debido a la existencia de patrones UV y no por el color amarillo per se. Este trabajo resalta la importancia de analizar los patrones cromaticos invisibles al ojo humano para comprender mejor la relacion entre las senales florales y las tasas de visita de los polinizadores. https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.20.30.1.0.911

D2D Relay Incenting and Charging Modes That Are Commercially Compatible With B2D Services

Attractive monetary or other kinds of incentives are needed to motivate the relayers in device-to-device (D2D) communications. In this paper, little attention has been paid to D2D charge and incentive mechanisms that are also compatible with prevailing mobile service charging models. To help lay a foundation for commercial applications of the D2D, this paper studies the charge, reward, and penalty modes of D2D communication under operator control. The charge and reward mechanisms of D2D services are analyzed from the perspective of the commercial relationships between operators and end users participating in D2D links, deriving the incentive principles based on which a number of examples of practical reward/penalty and charging modes are presented. For unicast services, the user perception of charging and rewards in a D2D relay service is studied in detail for an end-to-end communication process and a reward and penalty metering method, compatible with a base-station-to-device (B2D) billing mode is analyzed. Specifically, in a typical congestion scenario, the probability of a relayer deliberately disconnecting the D2D is estimated and modeled, and the effect of reward and penalty policies on the reliability of D2D services is analyzed quantitatively. For a directional content multicast service, the process of establishing a D2D relay connection with reward status awareness is presented. Furthermore, the prevalence of free-riding can be reduced by measures such as giving users high reward credits with a higher priority in obtaining B2D and D2D services. Finally, following the derived principles, some segmented D2D application scenarios with commercial or social utility are identified as avenues to promote the commercial use of practical D2D relaying.

Checking behavior in rhesus monkeys is related to anxiety and frontal activity

When facing doubt, humans can go back over a performed action in order to optimize subsequent performance. The present study aimed to establish and characterize physiological doubt and checking behavior in non-human primates (NHP). We trained two rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in a newly designed “Check-or-Go” task that allows the animal to repeatedly check and change the availability of a reward before making the final decision towards obtaining that reward. By manipulating the ambiguity of a visual cue in which the reward status is embedded, we successfully modulated animal certainty and created doubt that led the animals to check. This voluntary checking behavior was further characterized by making EEG recordings and measuring correlated changes in salivary cortisol. Our data show that monkeys have the metacognitive ability to express voluntary checking behavior similar to that observed in humans, which depends on uncertainty monitoring, relates to anxiety and involves brain frontal areas.

Locomotor Stimulant and Rewarding Effects of Inhaling Methamphetamine, MDPV, and Mephedrone via Electronic Cigarette-Type Technology

Although inhaled exposure to drugs is a prevalent route of administration for human substance abusers, preclinical models that incorporate inhaled exposure to psychomotor stimulants are not commonly available. Using a novel method that incorporates electronic cigarette-type technology to facilitate inhalation, male Wistar rats were exposed to vaporized methamphetamine (MA), 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), and mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone) in propylene glycol vehicle using concentrations ranging from 12.5 to 200 mg/ml. Rats exhibited increases in spontaneous locomotor activity, measured by implanted radiotelemetry, following exposure to methamphetamine (12.5 and 100 mg/ml), MDPV (25, 50, and 100 mg/ml), and mephedrone (200 mg/ml). Locomotor effects were blocked by pretreatment with the dopamine D1-like receptor antagonist SCH23390 (10 μg/kg, intraperitoneal (i.p.)). MA and MDPV vapor inhalation also altered activity on a running wheel in a biphasic manner. An additional group of rats was trained on a discrete trial intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) procedure interpreted to assess brain reward status. ICSS-trained rats that received vaporized MA, MDPV, or mephedrone exhibited a significant reduction in threshold of ICSS reward compared with vehicle. The effect of vapor inhalation of the stimulants was found comparable to the locomotor and ICSS threshold-reducing effects of i.p. injection of mephedrone (5.0 mg/kg), MA (0.5-1.0 mg/kg), or MDPV (0.5-1.0 mg/kg). These data provide robust validation of e-cigarette-type technology as a model for inhaled delivery of vaporized psychostimulants. Finally, these studies demonstrate the potential for human use of e-cigarettes to facilitate covert use of a range of psychoactive stimulants. Thus, these devices pose health risks beyond their intended application for the delivery of nicotine.

Bees use honest floral signals as indicators of reward when visiting flowers.

Pollinators visit flowers for rewards and should therefore have a preference for floral signals that indicate reward status, so called 'honest signals'. We investigated honest signalling in Brassica rapa L. and its relevance for the attraction of a generalised pollinator, the bumble bee Bombus terrestris (L.). We found a positive association between reward amount (nectar sugar and pollen) and the floral scent compound phenylacetaldehyde. Bumble bees developed a preference for phenylacetaldehyde over other scent compounds after foraging on B. rapa. When foraging on artificial flowers scented with synthetic volatiles, bumble bees developed a preference for those specific compounds that honestly indicated reward status. These results show that the honesty of floral signals can play a key role in their attractiveness to pollinators. In plants, a genetic constraint, resource limitation in reward and signal production, and sanctions against cheaters may contribute to the evolution and maintenance of honest signalling.

Prior fear conditioning and reward learning interact in fear and reward networks

The ability to flexibly adapt responses to changes in the environment is important for survival. Previous research in humans separately examined the mechanisms underlying acquisition and extinction of aversive and appetitive conditioned responses. It is yet unclear how aversive and appetitive learning interact on a neural level during counterconditioning in humans. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the interaction of fear conditioning and subsequent reward learning. In the first phase (fear acquisition), images predicted aversive electric shocks or no aversive outcome. In the second phase (counterconditioning), half of the CS+ and CS− were associated with monetary reward in the absence of electric stimulation. The third phase initiated reinstatement of fear through presentation of electric shocks, followed by CS presentation in the absence of shock or reward. Results indicate that participants were impaired at learning the reward contingencies for stimuli previously associated with shock. In the counterconditioning phase, prior fear association interacted with reward representation in the amygdala, where activation was decreased for rewarded compared to unrewarded CS− trials, while there was no reward-related difference in CS+ trials. In the reinstatement phase, an interaction of previous fear association and previous reward status was observed in a reward network consisting of substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA), striatum and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), where activation was increased by previous reward association only for CS− but not for CS+ trials. These findings suggest that during counterconditioning, prior fear conditioning interferes with reward learning, subsequently leading to lower activation of the reward network.

Coalescence of dominance motivation and responses to facial anger in resting-state and event-related electrophysiology

People vary in their proneness to dominate as a function of their motivation to fulfill their need for reward and social status. Recent research suggests that in humans dominant individuals respond vigilantly to angry faces, whereas non-dominant individuals rapidly signal submission. Dominance motivation has been suggested to reside in asymmetrical patterns of cortical and subcortical processing. The ratio between δ and β band oscillations has been proposed as a proxy for this asymmetry, which we here aimed to map onto individual patterns of the event-related potentials (N170) as well as behavioral responses to facial anger in the context of dominance motivation. Results show that dominance motivation indeed predicts increased δ in the δ/β asymmetry; a pattern that further translates into behavioral vigilance as well as attenuation of the event-related response to angry faces. The present data are interpreted to suggest that dominance motivation is related to increased subcortical and decreased cortical processing, and that this translates into increased vigilance in dominance challenges. This motivational state is further characterized by less detailed processing of facial information as reflected in the attenuation of N170 amplitude.

Food as a reward and weight status in children with autism

Obesity is a public health concern for typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Food is often used as a behavior management tool for children with ASD, yet whether this practice impacts their weight status is unknown. We assessed use of food as a reward by parental responses to our Meals In Our Household questionnaire in a cross‐sectional study of 53 children with ASD and 58 TD children aged 3–11 y. Six items query the frequency with which parents use food to reward or modify their child's behavior; 1 item asks about use of food as a reward at school. We calculated BMI z‐scores from measured height and weight. As expected, use of food rewards was more common among children with ASD than TD children, overall and by item. For example, 15 (28%) parents of children with ASD responded often or very often to the item “I give my child food to reward him/her for good behavior,” compared to no parents of TD children. Use of food as a reward was not associated with sex‐specific BMI‐for‐age z‐score among TD children. Some evidence of an association with BMI z‐score was observed among children with ASD; one item, “my child expects to be given a favorite food for a reward,” was significantly associated with BMI z‐score in children with ASD (p<0.02). Among children with ASD, use of food to reward behavior is common; our findings suggest this practice may increase their obesity risk. [HD048989 HD004147 DK046200].

Reward Tracking and Memory Decay in the Monarch Butterfly, Danaus plexippus L. (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

AbstractDue to their long‐distance migration routes and high longevity, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are likely to benefit from learning how to discriminate and remember suitable feeding resources. In this study, we assessed monarchs’ abilities to track changing nectar sources over time and to retain learned information presented in two conditioning schedules. Non‐preferred (blue and red) and preferred (yellow) artificial flowers were concomitantly offered to monarchs in a three‐phase experiment. In each phase, flowers of only one color contained sucrose solution, while the others contained water. The rewarding color was changed in each phase. Instantaneous observations were made to assess butterfly visits to each color during each phase; continuous observations over the first 90 min of a new phase allowed us to look in more detail at the transition process. Overall, monarchs tracked sucrose availability, visiting the rewarding flowers more often than the unrewarding ones, regardless of innate preferences. However, butterflies reverted to innate color preferences when the newly rewarding color was different from the initial trained color. In a second experiment, memory decay was compared for butterflies trained according to two schedules: ‘single training’ (sucrose solution in red vs. water in blue artificial flowers in one 15‐min session per day) or ‘intermittent training’ (as above, but in two 7.5‐min sessions per day). Afterwards, butterflies were tested on alternate days for a week in arrays containing unrewarding models of both colors. Following either training schedule, memory persisted for at least 3 d after reinforcement ceased. Our findings reveal that monarchs are able to change their feeding responses according to the flowers’ reward status despite innate preferences, as well as to retain flower information for about half a week regardless of the conditioning dynamics.

Effects of Credit Scores on Consumer Payment Choice

This paper investigates the effects of credit scores on consumer payment behavior, especially on debit and credit card use. Anecdotally, a negative relationship between debit card use and credit score has been reported; however, it is not clear whether that relationship is related to other factors, such as education or income, or whether it is a mere correlation. We use a new consumer survey dataset to examine whether this negative relationship holds after controlling for various consumer characteristics, including demographic and financial characteristics, consumers’ perceptions toward payment methods, and card reward status. The results based on a single-year survey as well as on panel data suggest that there is a significant negative relationship between debit card use and credit score even after controlling for various characteristics. We supplement the analysis with evidence from Equifax data. The results indicate that an increase in consumers’ cost of debit cards—in response to regulatory changes, for example—would have an adverse effect on low-credit-score consumers (typically those with lower incomes and less education). We then investigate what credit score implies. If credit score significantly influences consumer access to credit cards, credit limits, or the cost of credit cards, then the negative relationship likely results from supply-side constraints. If a lower credit score is associated with differences in underlying preferences, then the negative relationship is likely due to demand-side effects. Preliminary evidence strongly suggests that supply-side factors play an important role in the cost of credit and in access to credit.

Tagging items in spatial working memory: A unit-recording study in the rat medial prefrontal cortex

The rat medial prefrontal cortex has been suggested to be involved in executive functions and, more specifically, in working memory and response selection. Here, we looked for prefrontal neural correlates as rats performed a modified radial arm maze task that taxed such functions. Rats had to learn the position of four rewarded arms among eight, and visit each rewarded arm only once, thus avoiding repeated visits. In addition, rats were left on the maze after the four successful visits to baited arms until they had visited all the arms twice. Prefrontal neural activity was examined during choice periods, i.e. 2 s before the rat entered the arms. We found that a substantial proportion of recorded medial prefrontal neurons were selectively activated before either the first or second visit to the arms irrespective of their reward status, thereby tagging already visited arms. These behavioral correlates show that, within the rodent medial prefrontal cortex, neuronal populations demonstrate behavioral correlates suggestive of its role in guiding prospective search behavior and thus executive functions.

Reward Motivation Accelerates the Onset of Neural Novelty Signals in Humans to 85 Milliseconds

SummaryThe neural responses that distinguish novel from familiar items in recognition memory tasks are remarkably fast in both humans and nonhuman primates. In humans, the earliest onsets of neural novelty effects emerge at about ∼150–200 ms after stimulus onset [1–5]. However, in recognition memory studies with nonhuman primates, novelty effects can arise at as early as 70–80 ms [6, 7]. Here, we address the possibility that this large species difference in onset latencies is caused experimentally by the necessity of using reward reinforcement to motivate the detection of novel or familiar items in nonhuman primates but not in humans. Via magnetoencephalography in humans, we show in two experiments that the onset of neural novelty signals is accelerated from ∼200 ms to ∼85 ms if correct recognition memory for either novel or familiar items is rewarded. Importantly, this acceleration is independent of whether the detection of the novel or the familiar scenes is rewarded. Furthermore, this early novelty effect contributed to memory retrieval because neural reward responses, which were contingent upon novelty detection, followed ∼100 ms later. Thus, under the contextual influence of reward motivation, behaviorally relevant novelty signals emerge much faster than previously held possible in humans.

Reexamination of the Association Between Anonymity and Self-Interested Unethical Behavior in Adults

The well-established notion that the frequency of self-interested unethical behavior increases among anonymous people was reexamined employing a more strict definition of anonymity, voluntary unethical behavior, and adult individuals. Anonymity was defined as nonassociability of the participant’s traits with respect to unethical behavior. The participant’s identity and a monetary reward were manipulated as the independent variables, while cheating behavior was observed as the dependent variable. A sample of 143 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions (nonidentifiable–reward, identifiable– reward, nonidentifiable–nonreward, or identifiable–nonreward condition) to flip a coin twice in the experimental assignment. Results indicated that participants behaved differently depending on anonymity status and reward status. Implications for unethical behavior among anonymous individuals are discussed. Anonymity has several effects on human behavior. In the fields of social psychology and economics, anonymity has long been examined in

Hoverfly Visitation in Relation to Floral Colour Change (Diptera: Syrphidae)

Flower visitors from several insect taxa (bees, butterflies and some flies) are known to forage assortatively at flowers where floral colour change has occurred; these alterations are often dramatic and the flowers are retained on the plant. Here, a further example of floral colour change is reported and, for the first time, demonstrated how the incidence of such alteration affects foraging in syrphid flies. Feeding behaviour in Rhingia campestris and at least two other hoverfly species is strongly influenced by a striking and extremely localised colour change in the flowers of the wood forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica. Nearly 99 % of flower visits to pre-change flowers elicited a feeding response whereas only 13 % of visits to post-change flowers led to the same behaviour. Feeding times at post-change flowers were 2-3 times shorter compared to pre-colour-change residence time. Additionally, we confirm centrifugation as a suitable method for extracting low volumes of nectar from small tubular flowers; the change in syrphid feeding behaviour corresponds with both colour change and floral reward status.

A longitudinal study comparing the effort - reward imbalance and demand - control models using objective measures of physician utilization

The objectives of this study were to compare the predictive validity of the demand-control and effort-reward imbalance models using objective measures of physician utilization. Self-reports for psychosocial work conditions were obtained in interviews with 1,028 workers using the demand-control and effort-reward imbalance models. Physician utilization outcomes were obtained through linkage to the British Columbia Linked Health Database. Outcomes were any visit to a physician for mental health reasons and 30 or more physician visits for any reason. The predictive validity of both models was compared in a longitudinal study using logistic regression. Neither job strain nor effort-reward imbalance predicted either outcome. However, low esteem reward and low status control increased the risk for 30 or more physician visits by, respectively, approximately 60% and 30%. In a sample of middle-aged blue-collar current and ex-sawmill workers in Western Canada, followed prospectively, after controlling for sociodemographic and workplace confounders, and reducing the potential for adverse health selection into high-stress jobs, low esteem reward and low status control were associated with a significantly greater risk for 30 or more physician visits for any reason.

The effect of octopamine on behavioral responses of free-foraging bumblebees to a change in food source profitability.

The invertebrate neuromodulator octopamine is known to be involved in bees' associative learning, enhancing the responsiveness of a bee to a conditioned stimulus. In this study, we tested the effect of octopamine on the choice behavior of free-flying bumblebees using a two-phase experiment in an array of artificial flowers. During the first phase of the experiment, the bee was allowed to collect octopamine-laden sugar water from two types of equally rewarding flowers (yellow versus blue). In the second phase, one type of flower was set to be unrewarding. The behavior of the bee (proportion of visits to the unrewarding flowers) over the two phases was fitted to a sigmoid regression model. Our results show that octopamine had no significant effect on the bees' equilibrium choice or on the overall rate of the behavioral change in response to the change in reward. Rather, octopamine significantly affected the time interval between the change in reward status and the initiation of behavioral change in the bee.