Rewards

This page is about learning a specific method for the use of stripes on karate belts. That method is the careful use of rewards. I say careful, because current studies in reward theory have shown them to have a detrimental effect on intrinsic motivation under certain circumstances. I’m sure you’ve seen, and you may have even used tape stripes on your student’s belts, and most likely they have been perceived as a reward at times if not explicitly used as such, especially among children.

There is general agreement, however, that not all rewards have the same effect. Offering the same stripe to anyone for participating in an exercise usually does not reduce intrinsic motivation. It is only when the rewards are based on performing a given task in some constrained manner — for instance a stripe given for demonstrating a perfect Kata— that the problem develops. The key, then, lies in how a reward is experienced. If we come to view ourselves as working to get something, we will no longer find that activity worth doing in its own right.

There is an old joke that nicely illustrates the principle. An elderly man, harassed by the taunts of neighborhood children, finally devises a scheme. He offered to pay each child a dollar if they would all return Tuesday and yell their insults again. They did so eagerly and received the money, but he told them he could only pay 25 cents on Wednesday. When they returned, insulted him again and collected their quarters, he informed them that Thursday’s rate would be just a penny. “Forget it,” they said — and never taunted him again.

Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (1999) performed a meta-analysis which confirmed that extrinsic motivation can have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation. They examined 128 carefully conducted experiments and found that tangible rewards do, indeed, greatly weaken intrinsic motivation. The overjustification effect, as stated in Deci, Koestner, and Ryan’s meta-analysis, has significant consequences for many people. When control is placed on individuals by offering them incentives, the long term effect will be a loss in intrinsic motivation, accompanied by negative performance. This applies to classrooms, sports teams, as well as other environments. Should a reward be present, there is a risk of losing the enjoyment of the activity for itself.

The issue then, is the context within which the award is given. Verbal feedback given while presenting the award provides this context. If it is perceived as controlling in nature, i.e. given only when a certain task must be done just so, as opposed to informational in nature, i.e. given when a task is done well, intrinsic motivation is degraded. It should not be surprising that when verbal feedback is experienced as controlling, the effect on motivation can be similar to that of payment. In a study of corporate employees, Ryan found that those who were told, “Good, you’re doing as you should” were “significantly less intrinsically motivated than those who received feedback informationally.”

There’s a difference, Ryan says, between saying, “I’m giving you this reward because I recognize the value of your work” and “You’re getting this reward because you’ve lived up to my standards.” It appears then, that rewards should not be given contingent upon some specific level of task performance, or more precisely, should not be verbally tied to some absolute requirement within the feedback given along with the reward. Non-contingent rewards are not tied to the activity in question, thus, they run little risk of undermining intrinsic motivation.

Of course traditional behaviorists have much to say about reward theory too. According to Berridge and Robinson (2003), the impact of reinforcement on performance is twofold. Firstly, rewards can increase the desire to want or do something (increasing motivation), which greatly influences behavior. They believe this is a largely automated process. In terms of task performance, a reward can increase the attention that is allocated to a task, which can increase performance (Sarter, Gehring, & Kozak, 2006). A meta-analysis on the impact of reward on children in classroom situations, demonstrated that by using positive reinforcement (verbal praise, rewards, presents or candy), the intrinsic motivation of children increased, which, in turn, increases performance (Cameron & Pierce, 1994). Secondly, rewards can facilitate learning processes, since rewards will likely increase the chance that a response will be repeated (Schultz, Dayan, & Montague, 1997; Wise, 2004) and the omission of reward (or penalty) will decrease the chance of repetition. This process is mediated by dopamine responses to reward, which are suggested to ‘stamp in’ stimulus-response associations (Wise, 2004).

Taken together, it is clear from the forgoing that rewards can indeed play an important role in increasing intrinsic motivation when applied judiciously. Task non-contingent rewards, expected rewards given for participating, do not decrease intrinsic motivation because they do not create an instrumentality (focus on task performance) and are not perceived as controlling (activity must be done in some certain way, place, or time). Performance feedback is critical in any reward system. Performance contingent rewards administered informationally (with constructive feedback) increase intrinsic motivation. I should also note that some theorists (Deci, et. al.) believe that competitive rewards decrease intrinsic motivation.