Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T23:19:42.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Foundational assumption reasonable but uncertain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

Rex A. Wright Open the ORCID record for Rex A. Wright [Opens in a new window]  and
Christopher Mlynski
Rex A. Wright
Affiliation:
University of Texas Dell School of Medicine, Austin, TX78712, USA University of North Texas, Denton, TX, 76203, USA
Christopher Mlynski
Affiliation:
Technical University Dresden, 01069Dresden, Germany University of Vienna, 1010Vienna, Austria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We offer thoughts on Shadmehr and Ahmed's foundational assumption that behavioral intensity (vigor) is proportional to the perceived value of outcomes driving behavior (incentives). The assumption is reasonable considering classical motivational thought and scholarship in related literatures but called into question by an influential contemporary theory of motivation by Brehm. Brehm's theory suggests that the assumption is warranted in some, but not all, performance circumstances. Furthermore, proportionality between vigor and value might be generated through a deliberative goal-setting process rather than through intrinsic neural linkages.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e137
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brehm, J. W., & Self, E. (1989). The intensity of motivation. In Rozenweig, M. R. & Porter, L. W. (Eds.), Annual review of psychology (pp. 109–131). Annual Reviews, Inc.Google Scholar
Eubanks, L., Wright, R. A., & Williams, B. J. (2002). Reward and the heart: Incentive value influence on cardiovascular response at five levels of task demand. Motivation and Emotion, 26, 139–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gendolla, G. H. E., Wright, R. A, & Richter, M. (2012). Effort intensity: Some insights from the cardiovascular system. In Ryan, R. A. (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of human motivation (pp. 420–438). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399820.013.0024.Google Scholar
Heckhausen, H. (1991). Motivation and action (P. K. Leppman, trans.). Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckhausen, J., & Heckhausen, H. (2010). Motivation and action (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2019). The development of goal setting theory: A half century retrospective. Motivation Science, 5(2), 93–105. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000127CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richter, M., Gendolla, G. H. E., & Wright, R. A. (2016). Three decades of research on motivational intensity theory: What we have learned about effort and what we still don't know. In Elliot, A. (Ed.), Advances in motivation science. Elsevier Press.Google Scholar
Wright, R. A. (1996). Brehm's theory of motivation as a model of effort and cardiovascular response. In Gollwitzer, P. M. & Bargh, J. A. (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 424–453). Guilford.Google Scholar