Do Extrinsic Reinforcers Ruin Intrinsic Motivation?

This issue came up on Substack recently, so I thought I would re-post this revised version of a previous article I wrote on September 24, 2024.

Permit me to summarize the work of Judy Cameron and David Pierce who offer strong evidence that providing extrinsic rewards under most circumstances will increase not decrease intrinsic motivation.

Judy Cameron and W. David Pierce examined the conditions under which the presentation of rewards either negatively affected or improved intrinsic motivation. They published the results in their book “Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation: Resolving the Controversy”(2002) and in several subsequent publications. They reviewed over 100 research studies that investigated the effects of reinforcement on intrinsic motivation, including the work of Edward Deci and his colleagues. They defined intrinsic motivation by measuring the time a child spent engaged in a target activity without extrinsic reinforcement given a choice of activities.

1) providing rewards for activities that are inherently reinforcing did not reduce the frequency a person will engage in the activities once the extrinsic rewards were no longer provided;

2) Rewards provided for low-interest tasks increased the chances the task became more inherently reinforcing once the artificial rewards were no longer forthcoming;

3) reinforcers (including praise) provided for high-interest tasks increased the chances the task remained inherently reinforcing once the extrinsic rewards were no longer forthcoming;

4) When rewards were presented unexpectedly, there was no effect on intrinsic motivation;

5) When rewards were presented independent of the activity (i.e., regardless of what the person did), there was no effect on intrinsic motivation;

6) When people were reinforced for doing a task with little regard to the quality of their work, or with little regard to ensure the reinforcer was considered a reinforcer by the person, the person tended to do the activity less often in a free-choice period provided thereafter;

7) When people were reinforced for surpassing a personal goal or surpassing the performance of others intrinsic motivation increased;

8) When people were reinforced for each unit completed (e.g., here are 10 puzzles, I’ll give you 10 cents for each puzzle completed), yet did not obtain the full reward available (e.g. only completed 6 of 10 puzzles) people tended to do the activity less in a free choice situation presented thereafter;

9) If people were told they could obtain a certain level of reward for doing an activity within a certain time limit but did not obtain that level of reward because they ran out of time, they tended to do the activity less in a subsequent free choice situation.

10) When researchers exposed children to a baseline period where no external rewards were available for engaging in an inherently enjoyable activity, then began an equal period where rewards were provided, then returned to baseline where no external rewards were available, children who were rewarded spent as much (or more) time on the enjoyable activity during the post reward phase as they did during the initial baseline period.

11) Negative effects of reward (e.g., #8 & 9) were transitory when task performance was reinforced over several occasions.

Extrinsic reinforcement itself did not result in a decrease in intrinsic motivation but rather it was the way the promise of the reward was initiated that mattered. Intrinsic motivation decreased when rewards were not tied to the quality of the work, or when the person received fewer rewards than those promised. The notion is to avoid promising a reward after the child misbehaves to entice her to behave well. The promise of a reward can be a reward itself so by doing so they may inadvertently reinforce the child for behaving badly. Another point: don’t promise rewards that require a level of performance beyond the child’s ability.

Cameron and Pierce’s discovery that rewards increase performance on low-interest tasks, and simultaneously increase intrinsic motivation is an important finding for parents and teachers. Parents and teachers can, without feeling guilty, use external rewards to motivate children to learn important academic skills when the child has little initial interest, and by doing so make the activity more enjoyable.

Robert Eisenberger, author of Learned Industriousness encourages tying rewards to demanding standards as one way to increase motivation for challenging tasks, such as reading and math. Researchers Stephen Flora and David Flora urge parents to pay children to read. They examined the reading habits of college students who participated in the ‘Book It’ reading program. Over 22 million children in Australia set reading goals and received money or coupons for pizzas if their goals were met. Children who were rewarded for reading in- increased the amount they read as children and maintained their interest in reading as college students. Dr. Flora states there was no evidence for “the myth that extrinsic rewards inhibit internal motivation”.

Cameron, J., and Pierce, W. D., Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation: Resolving the Controversy Bergin & Garvey 2002.

Cameron, J., Pierce, W. D. (2005) Banko, M and Gear, A., Achievement Based Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation: A Test of Cognitive Mediators. Journal of Educational Psychology vol 97 No. 4, 641-655.

Eisenberger, R. Learned Industriousness Psychological Review, 99 248-267

Flora, S.R. & Flora D.B., (1999) The Effects of Extrinsic Reinforcement for Reading during Childhood on Reported Reading Habits of College Students. The Psychological Record 49, 3-14.