Motivation from control

• Published in: Experimental brain research Vol. 229; no. 3; pp. 475 - 484
• Main Authors: Eitam, Baruch, Kennedy, Patrick M., Tory Higgins, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-09-2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis; Behavior - physiology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Control (Psychology); Experiments; Feedback; Female; Humans; Hypotheses; Male; Motivation; Motivation (Psychology); Motivation - physiology; Neurology; Neurosciences; Reward; Task Performance and Analysis; Volition; Volition - physiology; Young Adult; Motivation; Agency; Reward
• ISSN: 0014-4819; 1432-1106
• DOI: 10.1007/s00221-012-3370-7

Human motivation is sensitive to value—to the outcomes of actions. People invest mental and physical resources for obtaining desired results or for stopping and reversing undesired ones. Accordingly, people’s motivation is sensitive to information about their standing in relation to outcome attainment (‘outcome feedback’). In this paper, we argue and present the first evidence for the existence of another motivational sensitivity in humans—a sensitivity to our degree of control on the environment and hence to information about that control (‘control feedback’). We show that when actions have even trivial and constant perceptual effects, participants’ motivation to perform is enhanced. We then show that increased motivation is not because more information about task performance is available and that motivation is increased only in conditions in which control over the effects can be firmly established by the mind. We speculate on the implications for understanding motivation, and potentially, physical and mental health.