From reward sensitivity to personalized learning: Enhancing the real-world significance of research on reward learning

01.01.2023 bis 31.12.2024

Learning based on rewards is a core aspect of human functioning. The important role that rewards play in learning has been established in numerous experimental studies from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. For instance, recent years have seen an upsurge in research on individuals’ sensitivity to rewards, with small-scale lab-based studies showing that learning is strongly modulated by rewards, and more specifically that learning is more likely to occur for better-than-expected reward outcomes. In educational contexts, rewards are often used, but have also been criticized as something negative that can undermine learning and motivation. However, most research on reward learning has not been tailored to education and there is a dearth of exchange and collaborations between “basic” scientists working in the lab (e.g., cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists) and “applied” scientists focusing on learning in naturalistic settings such as schools (e.g., educational psychologists).

The proposed project aims to bridge this gap: We will employ cutting-edge paradigms that examine highly specific cognitive mechanisms of reward and investigate these paradigms in learning situations that make use of real, education-relevant content. Our general goal is to examine whether and how effects of rewards may differ depending on individual learner characteristics and characteristics of the learning domain. Such insights would, for example, allow personalizing instruction and reward structures to individual children’s needs, thus helping all children to reach their potential and thrive. The proposed pilot project will focus on one critical aspect of reward mechanisms: reward sensitivity, i.e., the degree to which the amount of reward modulates the person’s learning.