title: A new perspective on human reward research: how consciously and unconsciously perceived reward information influences performance.
abstract: The question of how human performance can be improved through rewards is a recurrent topic of interest in psychology and neuroscience. Traditional, cognitive approaches to this topic have focused solely on consciously communicated rewards. Recently, a largely neuroscience-inspired perspective has emerged to examine the potential role of conscious awareness of reward information in effective reward pursuit. The present article reviews research employing a newly developed monetary-reward-priming paradigm that allows for a systematic investigation of this perspective. We analyze this research to identify similarities and differences in how consciously and unconsciously perceived rewards impact three distinct aspects relevant to performance: decision making, task preparation, and task execution. We further discuss whether conscious awareness, in modulating the effects of reward information, plays a role similar to its role in modulating the effects of other affective information. Implications of these insights for understanding the role of consciousness in modulating goal-directed behavior more generally are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9660, USA, claire.zedelius@psych.ucsb.edu.
authors.forename: Claire M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Zedelius
authors.forename: Harm
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Veling
authors.forename: Ruud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Custers
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bijleveld
authors.forename: Kimberly S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Chiew
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aarts
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D012106:Research; D012201:Reward; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology