Aversion to losing? Neural mechanisms underlying the paradoxical effect of incentives on performance

厌恶失去？

• 批准号: 1062703
• 负责人: John O'Doherty
• 金额: $ 59.43万
• 依托单位: California Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-01 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1062703&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Aversion; losing; Neural; mechanisms; underlying

A common assumption is that in order to get individuals to perform better on a particular task, they should be rewarded in proportion to how well they perform. This reasoning is behind performance-based pay in the workplace. However, psychologists and economists have long recognized that this type of relationship between rewards and performance only holds up to a point: When rewards get too large, often performance for a skilled task decreases rather than increases, compared to performance levels for a more moderate reward. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. John O'Doherty and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology are investigating why when a reward becomes especially large, individuals become very focused on the possibility of losing or failing to attain that reward. The researchers are studying whether the possibility of failure causes interference in the parts of the brain involved in performing a skilled act. The investigators are using functional magnetic brain imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity while volunteers perform a skilled task that involves a sequence of careful hand movements for which they receive differing amounts of potential monetary rewards, ranging from small to relatively large. The researchers are investigating whether performance levels for the larger rewards decreases relative to that for medium incentive levels, and whether decreasing brain activity in an area called the "ventral striatum" is related to individual performance decrements. In this project, the investigators are using multiple methods to manipulate how much individuals are focused on obtaining a negative and/or losing outcome while they perform the task. The researchers assert that a) the more individuals are focused on losing, the greater their performance declines; whereas, conversely, the less individuals are oriented to the possibility of losing, the greater their performance increase and that b) differences in focus are related to differing patterns of activity in the brain. Understanding why it is that performance sometimes decreases when the rewards (or stakes) are large has important implications in a number of areas. The knowledge gained could be used to design better schemes for incentivizing people to perform well on a work task, by minimizing the potential for performance deteriorations. More generally, many human endeavors demand high levels of performance under conditions of high stakes (high potential gain and high potential losses). Competitive sports are an obvious example, but similar scenarios likely arise in other high-pressure contexts, such as during surgery or the piloting of aircraft. A better understanding of how and why performance decrements occur could aid the development of new strategies to minimize their impact. Dr. O'Doherty participates in the public dissemination of research findings through a variety of media, including news papers and magazines, science blogs, and radio. The present project also contributes to the scientific training of undergraduate and graduate students, and the results of the research will be incorporated into courses taught at the undergraduate and graduate level.

一个普遍的假设是，为了使个人在特定任务上表现更好，应根据其表现的成绩来奖励他们。这种推理是在工作场所基于绩效的薪酬的背后。 但是，心理学家和经济学家长期以来已经认识到，奖励与绩效之间的这种类型的关系只能达到一定程度：当奖励变得太大时，与绩效水平相比，熟练任务的绩效通常会减少而不是提高，以获得更中等的奖励。 在国家科学基金会的资助下，加利福尼亚理工学院的John O'Doherty博士和同事正在调查为什么当奖励变得特别大时，个人会非常专注于失去或未能获得这种奖励的可能性。研究人员正在研究失败的可能性是否会导致涉及执行熟练行为的大脑部分的干扰。研究人员正在使用功能性磁性脑成像（fMRI）来测量大脑活动，而志愿者执行了一项熟练的任务，涉及一系列仔细的手动运动，他们获得了不同数量的潜在货币奖励，从小到相对较大。 研究人员正在研究较大奖励的绩效水平相对于中等动机水平的绩效水平是否降低，以及在称为“腹侧纹状体”区域的大脑活动降低是否与个体性能下降有关。在这个项目中，研究人员正在使用多种方法来操纵多少个人专注于在执行任务时获得负面和/或失败的结果。研究人员断言，a）越多的人专注于输球，其绩效下降越多；相反，较少的人对损失的可能性越少，其性能越大，并且b）焦点的差异与大脑活动的不同模式有关。了解为什么当奖励（或赌注）很大时，绩效有时会下降，这在许多领域都具有重要意义。获得的知识可用于设计更好的方案，以激励人们通过最小化绩效恶化的潜力来激励人们在工作任务上表现良好。更一般而言，许多人类努力要求在高赌注（高潜力增益和高潜在损失）的条件下高水平的绩效。竞争性运动是一个显而易见的例子，但是在其他高压环境中，例如手术或飞机驾驶时可能会出现类似的情况。 更好地了解如何以及为什么绩效下降可能有助于制定新策略以最大程度地减少其影响。 O'Doherty博士通过各种媒体参加了研究发现的公开传播，包括新闻报纸和杂志，科学博客和广播。本项目还为本科生和研究生的科学培训做出了贡献，研究结果将纳入本科和研究生层面教授的课程中。