Goal orientation shifts attentional focus and impairs reward-motivated memory

Abstract

While motivation typically enhances memory, some studies show that, in certain contexts, motivation associated with rewards can impair memory. Goal states associated with motivation can impact attention, which in turn influences what information is encoded and later remembered. There is limited research on how different incentive contexts, which manipulate attentional orientation to memoranda, lead to either reward-motivated memory enhancements or impairments in item and relational memory. Here, we test how different reward-motivated states may narrow or broaden attention with downstream consequences on memoranda. In study 1, giving participants a rewarded timed goal during visual search impaired both their item and relational memory relative to un-timed participants who were simply told that they would be rewarded for searching regardless of speed (despite having equated time). In study 2, we show that giving participants an elaborative goal after visual search completion remediates item and relational memory deficits in the Feedback group. Finally, in study 3, we show that elaborative processing of target items during visual search resulted in reward-motivated memory benefits for the item, but not relational memory for the context in which the item was encoded. Together, these findings support a model where the goal-relevant alterations in attentional breadth to reward may ultimately filter what information is remembered or forgotten.