It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 1MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & DOUGLAS A. JOHNSONSlide 2

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Slide 3
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It is typically defined as a theoreticalconstruct which is inferred from goaldirected behaviors.
It is often divided into two major
categories: Intrinsic and Extrinsic
Motivation
Extrinsic motivation is motivation thatinvolves variables external to theorganism

There is currently no universallyaccepted definition of the concept.
The difficulty in defining intrinsic
motivation is closely linked with thedifficulty in assessing internal events.

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Ultimately, intrinsic motivation is being
defined by our ignorance. We claim aperson is intrinsically motivated when
we cannot find any external factors
controlling and maintaining theperson’s behavior.
Since we do not have absolute control
over or knowledge of an individual’senvironment (environment in this casedoes not just include the physicalenvironment but also learning history
and covert behaviors), we often
incorrectly label motivating factors asinternal.

Personal story of being taught thevalue of claiming to be intrinsicallymotivated
Social reinforcement for how we makeattributions is important
There seems to be somewhat of astigma attached to doing things forexternal rewards… (and a truckload ofsocial reinforcers for claiming to do anactivity for its own sake)With an underlying assumption that
intrinsic motivation is innate andpeople who are intrinsically motivated
are more likely to succeed, it is not
surprising that the recommendation is
to hire intrinsically motivated people
and leave them to do what they do.
This seems rather impracticalhowever because how do you findthese people?

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 7

Slide 8

Problems withthis confusion

Slide 9A lot of the research on motivation
have a lot of shortcomings. A major
one is equating rewards to reinforcers.

Assuming that rewards aresynonymous to reinforcers leads toflawed research conclusions.
 Reinforcers are specific to people.
What reinforces my behavior might not
reinforce yours.

Another shortcoming is thinking
that motivation is only about
consequence manipulations.
A major part of motivation that isoften neglected is antecedent
manipulations. These include job
aids, redesigning processes,
clarifying expectations, setting
goals, and so on.

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 10

Money or

Another major shortcoming is thepresumption that money and tokens
are the only extrinsic consequences.

Skinner first proposed automatic
reinforcement as an explanation forbehaviors with no extrinsic rewards
way back in the 1950s.
Sensory stimuli resulting fromengaging in behavior reinforces thebehavior

tokens in general

are often
equated as theonly extrinsic
consequences

Slide 11

Slide 12

Automatic reinforcement exists
independent of the social environment
making it occur a little more reliably.

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 13Slide 14

Slide 15

Creativity is often seen as somethinginside of a person that just bursts out.
Intrinsically motivated behavior is said
to result in creativity. This is probably
because it can persist in the absenceof direct teaching due to automatic
reinforcement.
Therefore, behavior analysts would
agree that automatic reinforcement ispreferred to social reinforcement
This might not be necessarily because
it is more effective but because it ismore reliable and cheaper in terms oftime and money

Williams defines the overjustification
effect as “a below-baseline decreasein the rate of performance of“intrinsically motivated” behavior that
follows a period during which thebehavior is extrinsically rewarded”.
This change is implied to bepermanent which helps explain thereason why extrinsic rewards arefrowned upon.

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 16

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Slide 17

The primary purpose of this study is toinvestigate the performance ofmonkeys on mechanical puzzles
whose manipulation is accompanied
by no extrinsic reward.
Four rhesus monkeys were given 12
days' experience in manipulating amechanical puzzle whose solution did
not lead to any special incentive suchas food or water.
Subsequent introduction of foodtended to disrupt instead of facilitate
the puzzle solving.
This puzzle involved carefully
removing the pin restraining the hook,then moving on to remove the hookfrom the hasp which involved moving
it in the direction the pin was. Only
after this was done could the monkey
raise the flush. The puzzle wascompleted by raising the flush. This
was a task that required calmness.

There were three periods in eachexperiment. Subjects were not given
rewards in the first and third periodbut were given rewards in the secondperiod. The results showed that whenmoney was used as an external
reward, intrinsic motivation tended todecrease and when verbal
reinforcement and positive feedback
were used, intrinsic motivation
seemed to increase.
The task involved solving the Somapuzzle. It was chosen because it
seemed that college students at thetime would be intrinsically motivatedto perform the task. The pieces could
be put together to form different
shapes. The students were required
to put together specific combinations

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 18

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Slide 19

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Slide 20

Questionable research tactics in this area
• Pre- or posttestparadigm• Number of sessions(data points)• Observation period• Averaging data
• Self report

There were several considerations
missed by Harlow. He discussed
sensory reinforcement as some sort ofnew drive but sensory reinforcement
is a form of reinforcement.
Another thing is increasing the speedof performance might disrupt success.
The puzzle Harlow used required thatthe monkeys were calm and careful.
Increased motivation may haveinterfered with successful
performance

The result of Deci’s study was not
significant at the .05 level but he stillboldly claimed some significance.
As a result, so many otherpublications have made strong claims
about the overjustification effectbased on his study.

The problem with pre- and posttest
paradigm is there is not a lot ofscientific control.
Another issue is that a lot of thestudies used small number ofsessions with short observation
periods and no follow up data wascollected.
Averaging data can hide important
information
Self-reports are often biased and as
we all know, they are not a reliablemeasure of behavior. It is importantthat in our research, we use a moreobjective source of information.

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 21

Why these methods matter:
Some hypothetical data of two groups
under different conditions
Day



1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Group 1

1587

1836

1696

1689

1733

1497

1918

2789

3178

3705

3828

4658

928

98

1437

1894

1688

Group 2

1699

1549

1629

1554

1748

1976

1478

1784

1633

1687

1773

1566

1908

1693

1707

1495

1646

1589

Hypothetical data. Data was collected
for 18 sessions and there were twogroups.
Group 1 was the experimental groupand group 2 was the control group

Group 1: Intrinsic/Extrinsic/Intrinsic
Group 2: Control group; average performance of 1673
Example data and graph from:
McGee & Johnson, 2015

Slide 22

5000

Starting Intrinsic
Conditions

4500

Added Extrinsic
RewardThe three phases were starting
intrinsic conditions, added extrinsic
reward and return to intrinsic
conditions.

Now if you just collect one data point,
which some researchers do, we cansee that during the starting intrinsic
condition, the organism is performing
at a 1587 level.
So, for example the employee isproducing 1587 pens in the first phaseand in the third phase, the intrinsic
condition phase, the employee is only
producing 9 pens.
From this, you are likely to conclude
that rewards are detrimental.

Return to Intrinsic
Conditions

Hypothetical Work Units Produced

4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
01Slide 232345678910 11
Successive Days

12131415161718

5000

Starting Intrinsic
Conditions

4500

Added Extrinsic
RewardReturn to Intrinsic
Conditions

Hypothetical Work Units Produced

4000
3500
3000

1587

2500
2000

91500
1000
500
012345678910 11
Successive Days12131415161718



It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 24

5000

Starting Intrinsic
Conditions

4500

Added Extrinsic
RewardOkay, what if we just use averages…
we may still be convinced thatrewards are detrimental to intrinsic
interest as there is a drop from 1673
to 859.

If we look at the graph carefully
however, we can tell that in the return
to intrinsic condition, the data has twolevels which means that somethingelse is going on.
At this point, we should be collecting
more data and if we don’t, taking an
average of the second level will show
us that the individual is performing at
the same level as baseline.

Return to IntrinsicConditions

Hypothetical Work Units Produced

4000
3500
3000
2500

Average:
1673

Average:859

2000

Average:
3376

1500
1000
500
0
1Slide 25

2345

678
910 11
Successive Days1213

14

15

16

17

185000Starting Intrinsic
Conditions

4500

Added Extrinsic
RewardReturn to Intrinsic
Conditions

Hypothetical Work Units Produced

4000
3500
3000
2500

Average:
1673

Average:
1673

2000

Average:
3376

1500
1000
500
0
1Slide 26

2

3

4

5

6

7

8
910 11
Successive Days

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

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Another thing is you get what you payfor. Or rather, you should be clear
what you are requesting when offeringpay.
Task contingent rewards are given
irrespective of the quality or quantityof the task. Dickinson explains thattask-contingent rewards havesignificantly decreased post-rewardperformance relative to performancecontingent rewards.
So, it is important to be clear about
what you want when reinforcing
behaviors.

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 27

Slide 28

Slide 29

What might beleading to theoverjustification
effect

If we look at the research pool on theoverjustification effect, we will see thatsometimes the overjustification effectoccurs and other times, it does not.
Perhaps then, it is important that we
isolate those instances in which it
occurs and those in which it does notand compare the two.
Context is therefore essential.

So, if the issue is not with therewards, what causes the huge dropin the rate of behavior talked about?
Two possible explanations include:o Satiation of the stimuli
resulting from target behavior
due to repeated exposure ando Deprivation of alternatives

More research needs to be done that
does not ignore the major issues
talked about in this presentation.

It All Started with Monkeys and Raisins: The History of the Intrinsic / Extrinsic Motivation Debates
MERRILYN AKPAPUNA & Douglas A. Johnson
Western Michigan University
May 31st, 2016
Association for Behavior Analysis International 42nd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Correspondence: merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu

Slide 30

You get what you pay for.
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

If you pay raisins, you get frustrated monkeys.

If you deliver pay wrong, you get ademotivating contingency

Slide 31

Thank you!
merrilyn.o.akpapuna@wmich.edu
www.johnsonresearchlab.com