No description available.

Thesis (B.Sc.Hons.) -- University of Adelaide, Department of Psychology, 1974.

No description available.

This experiment was performed to assess the interactive effect of incentive strength and task difficulty using measures of behavioral intensity. Subjects faced an easy or difficult task in order to avoid having to listen to aversive radio static. Half of the subjects were to hear a loud noise and half were to hear a soft noise. Prior to task commencement, five measures of behavioral intensity were taken—two timing measures, two counting measures, and one measure involving the amount of error in filling in scantron bubbles. Results showed that one timing measure and three mood adjectives followed the predicted pattern, but not in a statistically significant fashion. The patterns indicated the energization remained low and uniform when subjects heard soft noise, but increased as a function of task difficulty when subjects were exposed to a loud noise. Results are discussed in terms of Brehn’s energization theory of motivation. / Department of Psychological Science

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborg University, 2007. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-138).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Incentives are fundamental and often powerful motivators of human behavior. Considerable research has focused on financial rewards as a tool to encourage “good” decisions. This dissertation examines the psychology and efficacy of monetary incentives—compared to multiple nonmonetary incentives—with respect to individuals’ choices, performance, and habits. I document and explore a variety of interrelated effects that cash, relative to noncash, incentives can incur in four major areas of behavior: habit formation, choice (specifically, tradeoffs involving risk and delay), goal setting, and integrity. In three longitudinal field experiments, I devise and empirically test a novel incentive program based on self-reward, where individuals defined and administered their own rewards for reaching a goal. I find that this system outperforms cash on several consequential metrics, including task engagement and longer-term persistence. I further place these behaviors in the context of a greater focus on compensation when incentivized with cash: People become fixated on attaining the reward over the process of expending effort. Although this mentality fuels efficient goal attainment, it can also lead to—as I show using a series of online studies—distortionary effects on other aspects of goal pursuit, such as the tendency to choose easier effort streams and the willingness to forgo a reward’s magnitude for its certainty or immediacy. Combined, these findings suggest that practitioners seeking to motivate their constituents may do well to reconsider the use of cash incentives.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wyoming, 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on April 1, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-35).

This study investigated the effects of unit price structure, unit price descriptions, and unit price sequence on the demand for money in humans. Six groups of 3 participants solved multiplication problems in exchange for money under various unit prices. Consumption of money decreased as the unit price increased across all conditions. However, the data also showed that: (a) fixed price structures produced slightly more elastic demand than did variable price structures, (b) price descriptions produced more elastic demand under variable price structures but had little or no effect under fixed price structures, and (c) the alternate sequence used with fixed price structures produced slightly more elastic demand.