Dissociable Influences of Positive and Negative Incentives on Psychophysiological States During Mental Effort Allocation

<p>Potential positive and negative outcomes can drive effort and motivation, but the affective and physiological responses associated with these motivational states are less examined. To examine whether affective experiences directly drive effort adjustments or if affective experiences and effort adjustments are independent responses to incentives, the current study investigated the relationships between incentives, psychophysiological states, and behavioral responses. Participants (Study 1, n=144; Study 2, n=101) played a cognitively demanding task under varying positive incentives (monetary reward per correct response) and negative incentives (monetary loss per error). We found that potential rewards led to faster responses and increased approach motivation and challenge states, whereas potential penalties led to slower and more accurate responses, and increased avoidance motivation and threat states. We also found an affect-behavior link such that greater avoidance motivation and threat states were associated with more cautious behavioral patterns. Furthermore, by manipulating participants' stress states in Study 2, we found that individuals in a threat state showed attenuated behavioral, subjective, and physiological reactivity to potential penalties relative to those in a challenge state. Together, the findings suggest that affective representations of incentives, specifically the subjective experience of threat, avoidance motivation, and sympathetic arousal, are closely linked to adjustments in mental effort allocation.</p>