Incentives Lecture- Jennelle Long

Like most things in life, when there is an incentive to do something the motivation is always ten times stronger to do that action. Not only humans, but with animals as well especially dogs. The rate of reinforcement states that as the rate of reinforcement increases, the rate of responding also increases as well. When we are given a choice, we will most likely choose the activity that produces more reinforcement. I found the contrast effect very interesting- positive incentive contrast and negative incentive contrast. Humans are so quick to change their behavior and motivation towards an action in turns of the positive/negative incentives mentioned above. In the case that the activity is a negative incentive contrast we most likely will stop all motivation towards that without even second guessing our actions. Functional autonomy is something that interested me in this power point because I related to the example. It states that- you started running for exercise but you now run because the pleasure of it. I feel as though that something such as running or any work out can be so hard to get into because of the embarrassment and fear of what others think about you before hand. Once you begin and just focus on your motivation to do so, it becomes rewarding. This was the most interesting power point to me, there is so much more to motivation and incentives then I ever could have imagined.