Control over reward gain unlocks the reward cue motivational salience

Events in life can be perceived to be under our own control, or to occur independently from our will, two psychological styles known as internal vs external locus-of-control respectively. While it is established that positive events like reward-predicting stimuli attract attention, whether the control over reward gain can also influence the attentional salience of reward cues is unknown. Here, we systematically manipulated the control in reward gain to investigate this possibility in humans. Experiment 1 showed that stimuli associated with an internal control in reward attainment gained attentional salience. However, Experiment 2 showed that the internal control alone is not sufficient to confer attentional salience to reward-cues. Finally, Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and served also the purpose to exclude alternative accounts. Our findings show that the reward-cue attentional salience is not only affected by reward value, but also by the control over reward gain.

Automated summary

Events in life can be perceived to be under our own control or independent from our will, known as internal vs external locus-of-control. This study investigated whether the control over reward gain can influence attentional salience of reward cues. Experiment 1 showed that stimuli associated with internal control gained attentional salience. However, Experiment 2 revealed that internal control alone is not enough to confer attentional salience to reward cues. Additionally, Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and excluded alternative explanations. The findings suggest that reward-cue attentional salience is influenced by both reward value and control over reward gain.