The researchers also tracked activity in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain involved in the processing of rewards. They observed elevated activity in the nucleus accumbens when a subject’s rank within the group increased. “That shows that the task was motivationally important to people,” Quartz says. “When they saw their rank go up, that was a reward.”
Similar to the previous work on offering money for higher scores. Not very relevant to high-stakes testing, where people already have strong reason to want to succeed—and so have motivation.
Similar to the previous work on offering money for higher scores. Not very relevant to high-stakes testing, where people already have strong reason to want to succeed—and so have motivation.
Do you have more information on this? I hadn’t heard of this effect before.
http://www.pnas.org/content/108/19/7716