For example, intrinsic motivation exposes organisms to novel situations and therefore occasions the development of diverse skills and competencies to cope with uncertain future situations.
– The Emerging Neuroscience of Intrinsic Motivation: A New Frontier in Self-Determination Research
… the goal was to press a button with the right thumb so that the button press fell within 50 ms of the 5-s time point…
– Neural basis of the undermining effect of monetary reward on intrinsic motivation
Students sometimes use the wrong suffix in writing. Suffixes are groups of letters which are attached to the back of root words. For example, the word, ‘reward’ is a root word. It is a root word because it cannot be broken down further and still retain meaning. Suffixes are not just about form but also about meaning.
Consider for example the following words; rewarded and rewarding. On the surface the difference between the words is limited to the variation in suffixes; –ed and –ing. Though the letters which comprise these suffixes are few, the change they effect in meaning is large.
The word rewarded has the suggestion of earning something from someone or something in exchange for doing (or not doing) something. Rewarding on the other hand has the suggestion of enjoyment and fulfilment without having need for anything from outside oneself.
Whether students should be rewarded and if they were, whether they would still find what they were doing rewarding, was tested by a group of Japanese researchers in 2010.
Kou Murayama who studies motivation and three fellow researchers, devised a stopwatch test and conducted FMRI scanning for their study.
Participants (28 undergraduate students) were required to stop the timer within 50 milliseconds after 5 seconds. One group was told that if they were successful, they would receive 200 yen. The other group was not informed of any reward. The two groups were then left alone without instructions in a quiet room for 3 minutes where they could either try to stop the timer within 5 milliseconds of 5 seconds or engage in a number of other activities. After the quiet time, both groups were tested again. This time, both groups were told they would get no reward. After this, both groups were left alone for 3 minutes without instructions again.
It was found that the group which played for the reward did not try the stopwatch task when left alone as many times as the group which was not promised any reward. Brain scans confirmed “dramatic decreases in the activation of the striatum and midbrain in response to the success feedback” – those who played for the reward did not find the task rewarding once they got the reward. There was also “decreased activity” in the lateral prefrontal cortex, which suggested that those who were motivated by external reward were no longer keen to focus on the task once the reward was removed.
Given limited time during lessons, diminishing marginal utility and the benefits as well as necessity of self-directed learning, it will be useful to understand how to ignite a self-sustaining passion for learning.
Self-sustained behaviour requires intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated individuals would persist in behaviours until they achieve success in whatever goal it is they are pursuing without need for efforts from others. Given how well rewards work especially with very young children, there may be a misplaced trust in the efficacy of rewards. Adults know that many things they do are intrinsically rewarding and that no one would be watching to bestow rewards.
Psychologists have been studying motivation for a long time and have tried to explain its workings in different ways. Some have said that motivation is dependent on rewards in the external environment – we move to obtain benefits. Others have said that motivation arises when there is an imbalanced internal state which causes a drive to seek balance. For example, someone hungry would look for food.
Both the foregoing explanations of motivation had their limitations. It was observed for example that “the introduction of rewards led … primates to decrease their spontaneous manipulative explorations” (Domenico & Ryan, 2017). Also, it was found that animals explored even when they were not hungry or even after they were already full.
So, it was suggested that there is in everyone, an independent drive to search out new experiences and learning. This is known as the “SEEKING system” (Panksepp, 1998 as cited in Domenico & Ryan, 2017). To activate or keep this drive humming, two things are necessary. They are autonomy and competence.
According to Domenica and Ryan (2017) who attempted to show what happens in the brain when people are intrinsically motivated, autonomy is the feeling that one actively chooses one’s actions and where one goes is dependent on where one wants to go. Competence is the need to achieve mastery.
Both autonomy and competence are essential parts of the Self-Determination Theory which suggests that people recognise that they have control and do want to exercise control over their lives.
Domenica and Ryan (2017) made two main suggestions about how the brain responds when there is intrinsic motivation.
First, they referred to various studies which suggested that dopamine is connected with intrinsic motivation. Dopamine is sometimes referred to as the pleasure hormone but it has been shown that instead it causes wanting.
For example, there was a study in 2010 which suggested that when someone saw potential for a rewarding experience which appeared out of the blue, “value-coding neurons” fire more. This would increase eagerness and excitement. Conversely, when an unexpected threat appears, there is a decrease in the activity of such neurons.
The same study also “identified salience-coding neurons”. These neurons fire more when opportunities or threats appear without warning. When these neurons fire, the assessor (of the nature of the situation) becomes alert and focuses a lot of effort on either capturing the opportunity or evading the threat.
This suggests that students who are used to independently valuing what is before them would be well placed to both capture opportunities and evade threats.
Another study which used EEG (electroencephalography) found that school students displayed “lower FRN amplitudes” when receiving “negative feedback on a supposedly interesting task relative to a boring task”. FRN refers to “feedback-related negativity”. This happens when there is a decrease in release of dopamine. This suggested that students who do not like what they are working on or to be working in the first place, stop wanting to succeed in the task when they receive negative feedback.
Therefore, when students are not motivated to begin with, being critical would be detrimental.
Domenico and Ryan also referred to studies which showed which regions in the brain were activated when intrinsic motivation was present. In brief, it appears to have been established by several studies that when intrinsic motivation is present, the “central executive network” comprising, among other areas, the DLPFC (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and PPC (posterior prefrontal cortex) are very active.
When the central executive network is active, we are fully present in the task before us and able to apply ourselves fully to it, effectively and efficiently.
When this region is active, the Default Mode Network comprising the MPFC (medial prefrontal cortex) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) becomes very much less active. The Default Mode Network is active when someone is self-conscious, overthinking in an unproductive way or experiencing mind wandering. When faced with an unsolvable stage in problem solving, recruitment of this region would often yield breakthroughs – mind wandering does have its benefits.
Taken together, what this means is when students get to choose what they want to work on at a given time, they are more likely to devote attention and energy especially when it gets challenging. They are less likely to need rewards from outside and less likely to become anxious about performance or be distracted. Importantly, they can be guided to cultivate a taste for mastery – achieving this target feels good and nothing compares to this feeling.
The –ing suffix denotes experiences.
The Brain Dojo
