The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation by Richard Ryan

Author:Richard Ryan [Ryan, Richard M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780190666477
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Can Stimuli Trigger Motivation?

Although the theories previously outlined explain how stimuli can trigger responses, mediated by outcome representations or not, they are silent when it comes to the question of whether, besides directing behavior, such stimuli can also motivate this behavior outside awareness. For goal pursuit to operate, behavior must also be furnished with the necessary effort.

Incentive Learning

Early findings from research on incentive learning provide some evidence showing that stimuli may also incentivize or motivate behavior. Incentive learning theories were inspired by remarkable findings in different animal labs that shed new light on the role of reinforcement in learning processes following the s–r habit paradigm (Skinner, 1953; J. B. Watson, 1925). For instance, operant stereotypes or misbehaviors were discovered during operant conditioning experiments (Breland & Breland, 1961). One such behavior is autoshaping (Brown & Jenkins, 1968; Williams & Williams, 1969). For example, it has been shown that pigeons, for which free presentation of food is repeatedly paired with a light signal, start to vigorously pick at the light bulb although this behavior is not explicitly reinforced. This phenomenon, in which the animal’s behavior is automatically shaped without specific reinforcement, occurs because the positive affect or pleasure aroused by the food has now become linked to the light bulb, which triggers a motivational approach in the animal as if the stimulus were an incentive.

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