Motivational incentives improve working memory performance by enhancing memory-based representations rather than altering response strategies
- 1University of Oxford
Abstract
Motivational incentives are known to improve working memory (WM) when items differ in value, but whether they enhance performance when all items are equally valued, and if so, by what mechanism, remains unclear. Improvements could reflect enhanced memory-based representations or speed-accuracy trade-offs, whereby incentives promote slower, more cautious responding without improving memory itself. Here, we tested these alternatives across two experiments using an auditory WM task in which incentives varied across trials, but all items on a trial were equally incentivised. In Experiment 1,we allowed participants to resubmit their responses if desired. Reward-related improvements in WM performance were selectively observed when memory load was high, and only at serial positions associated with greater interference. These improvements were also dissociated from systematic response slowing and resubmission behaviour. This indicated that the benefits of incentives were unlikely to be attributable to response caution. Critically, in Experiment 2, motivational benefits persisted under strict response deadlines, where speed cannot be traded for accuracy. Computational modelling showed that reward selectively improved the precision of memory-based responses without reducing guessing. Together, these findings indicate that motivational incentives improve WM by enhancing the quality of memory-based representations, rather than by strategic slowing or altering response strategies.
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BibTeX
@misc{nair2026motivational,
title = {{Motivational incentives improve working memory performance by enhancing memory-based representations rather than altering response strategies}},
author = {V. Nair and O. Agnel and E. Mizrak and S. G. Manohar},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.02.755939},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.02.755939v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Motivational incentives improve working memory performance by enhancing memory-based representations rather than altering response strategies
AU - V. Nair
AU - O. Agnel
AU - E. Mizrak
AU - S. G. Manohar
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.02.755939
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.02.755939v1
AB - Motivational incentives are known to improve working memory (WM) when items differ in value, but whether they enhance performance when all items are equally valued, and if so, by what mechanism, remains unclear. Improvements could reflect enhanced memory-based representations or speed-accuracy trade-offs, whereby incentives promote slower, more cautious responding without improving memory itself. Here, we tested these alternatives across two experiments using an auditory WM task in which incentives varied across trials, but all items on a trial were equally incentivised. In Experiment 1,we allowed participants to resubmit their responses if desired. Reward-related improvements in WM performance were selectively observed when memory load was high, and only at serial positions associated with greater interference. These improvements were also dissociated from systematic response slowing and resubmission behaviour. This indicated that the benefits of incentives were unlikely to be attributable to response caution. Critically, in Experiment 2, motivational benefits persisted under strict response deadlines, where speed cannot be traded for accuracy. Computational modelling showed that reward selectively improved the precision of memory-based responses without reducing guessing. Together, these findings indicate that motivational incentives improve WM by enhancing the quality of memory-based representations, rather than by strategic slowing or altering response strategies.
ER -