title: The effects of monetary and social rewards on task performance in children and adolescents: liking is not enough.
abstract: The current study compared the effects of reward anticipation on task performance in children and adolescents (8-16 years old) using monetary and various social rewards. Eighty-five typically developing children undertook the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task. Of these 44 also undertook the Social Incentive Delay (SID-basic) task where social reward was operationalized as a smiling face and spoken compliments. Forty-one children participated in the SID-plus where points were added to a pictogram with written compliments. In a preparatory validation study participants were asked howmuch they liked the SID-basic rewards.Results showed that there was an effect of reward size on accuracy and RT in both the MID task and SID-plus, but not SID-basic. Subjective value of the SID-basic rewards was rated higher with hypothesized increasing reward intensity. In conclusion, although the social rewards in SID-basic were liked by children andadolescents in the validation study, they had no effect on the behaviour. Only when points were added (SID-plus), anticipated social reward affected task performance. Thus our results highlight (i) the difference between likeability andreinforcing quality and (ii) the need for a quantifiable element to rewards for themto be reinforcing for children.
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Ellen.Demurie@UGent.be
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Demurie
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Roeyers
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baeyens
authors.forename: Edmund
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sonuga-Barke
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D004644:Emotions; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012201:Reward; D012919:Social Behavior; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis