For questions relating to mechanisms that modulates behavior, either as an initiator, limiting influence, or sustainer.
5
votes
0answers
55 views
How long should I work before taking a break?
I'd like to work as effectively as possible for 8-9 hours a day, whether at work or studying.
At some point in completing my major in psych I remember hearing about the importance of taking breaks ...
6
votes
2answers
241 views
Is procrastination greater when skill is low and rewards offer low status boost and does this lead to efficient task allocation in groups?
I am very interested in procrastination, because it is such a clear sign of lack of motivation. I have a hypothesis about why we procrastinate, which I would like to get tested by you.
The assumption ...
4
votes
1answer
54 views
Term for incentives working without conscious awareness
Is there a term that captures the idea that incentives work even when people deny their choices have been swayed by them?
For example, an individual amazon book reviewer may deny that a recent ...
13
votes
1answer
173 views
How can I use gamification to encourage people to complete workplace training?
I am looking for ways to improve the likelihood people will perform mundane but required workplace training. I am looking into gamification techniques.
My organisation requires that employees ...
12
votes
1answer
207 views
How long can a person stay happy, excited and motivated about something new?
I'm interested in learning more about studies or experiments that determine how long a typical person can stay excited about something new:
...
5
votes
1answer
127 views
Desire to climb from evolutionary perspective?
When I go near a hill or dune, I feel desire to climb there and have a wider look on the surroundings. I know a lot of people who love mountains and want to climb higher and higher, but never have ...
14
votes
1answer
408 views
Is there experimental support for John Perry's “Theory of Structured Procrastination”?
John Perry's theory of structured procrastination can be summed up as follows:
Some people are inherently predisposed to be procrastinators across a wide range of domains
Such procrastinators are ...
5
votes
0answers
73 views
How to teach parents to apply early childhood interventions to improve cognitive outcomes in children?
I've watched the "My Brilliant Brain: Born Genius" documentary where they refer to the Abecedarian Project, in that investigation, a group of children that were exposed to early childhood education ...
2
votes
1answer
49 views
Are there already models for planning and goal-directed behaviour?
I'm interested in planning and how one is able to take action and plan ahead at the same time. I could imagine one could make observations and project these into the future using past experiences. The ...
3
votes
1answer
64 views
Why does it seems in similar cases sometimes classic conditioning happens and in others habituation?
I'm slightly confused and was hoping you guys could correct me.
In classic conditioning as with Pavlov's dogs if we ring a bell just before a dog is given food, the bell will give the same response ...
7
votes
1answer
87 views
Does introducing an element of play, hunt, or competition make feeding more rewarding?
I have limited experience feeding wildlife, and while it's fun to watch and I'm sure fun for the wildlife too, I'm interested in just how much fun. Is there's any noticeable difference in the ...
4
votes
1answer
175 views
How can motivation be increased by improving brain chemistry with nutrition and activities?
I'm reading some material about motivation and brain chemistry.
One of the interesting articles is "7 Ways to Increase Motivation by Improving your Brain Chemistry". I'm interested in a more ...
5
votes
2answers
218 views
Can scary movies trigger fight or flight and why can a person enjoy this while another does not?
Essentially, I understand the release of adrenaline can be addictive and that scary movies and events are a safe way of experiencing the drama without all the actual mess. but
However, if we are ...
17
votes
2answers
441 views
Are autonomy, mastery, and purpose the most important motivators?
I've watched the amazing TED talk where Daniel Pink lays out the contrarian notion that greater extrinsic motivators are unimportant (and sometimes detrimental) in comparison to three intrinsic ...
3
votes
1answer
176 views
Why do people donate money to others engaging in activities for charity?
In the UK and elsewhere individuals often engage in activities (e.g., running, shaving your head, etc.) for the purpose of eliciting sponsorship. The money raised is then donated to charity.
...
4
votes
0answers
39 views
Do the motivations and fears behind Enneagram have any scientific reasoning?
Background
The Enneagram personality typing system defines set of motivations and basic fears for its nine personality types among people.
The system seems to be aimed at personal development of a ...
4
votes
0answers
79 views
When one activity makes you less distracted doing another activity? [closed]
Background: When I'm coding, I sometimes make tea, and as long as I'm drinking the tea, I find myself more focused. Drinking tea seems to make me focus more. Thus, it seems that while doing something ...
6
votes
0answers
61 views
Problems with using personal feedback to motivate participation in an online psychological experiment?
I am planning on running an online psychological experiment where participants must learn about various simulated environments and then make inferences about them. Because completing the experiment ...
13
votes
0answers
321 views
What neural structures motivate humans to decide to “throw it all away”?
In the original formulation of this question, I was trying to understand what motivates "cut and run" behavior in humans. I was defining this anecdotally to include people that have severed ties with ...
15
votes
2answers
278 views
Have ideas of “gamification” been applied to education?
Wikipedia defines Gamification as "the use of game design techniques and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences."
Khan Academy has received attention (e.g., see this post) for incorporating ...
3
votes
0answers
76 views
What positive techniques can be used to motivate individuals resistant to common gamification techniques?
A previous question I asked dealt with Gamification techniques to encourage people to perform online workplace training.
We are hoping that we can introduce some game techniques to lift the ...
10
votes
2answers
195 views
What is the term for human beings' tendency to obey without thinking?
I'm wanting to read more about a certain human behavior, but I am not sure what the proper term for it is, so some of the things I am finding aren't what I am looking for. I'm interested in how Humans ...
23
votes
2answers
294 views
Do students exhibit rational behavior in determining study time?
While I teach some economics classes, I must admit to near complete ignorance on the optimization processes students undertake when studying. We often say that the "best" students are those who earn ...
4
votes
4answers
66 views
What is a good book for studying incentives?
I am looking for a book, which gives a broad overview of all the main theories regarding incentives. Using this book, I would like to further my understanding of things like:
Why slot machines ...
7
votes
3answers
41 views
How can you limit excessive risk-taking at the institutional level?
Some firms have a compensation structure that encourages risk-taking while insulating employees from the bad consequences of their decisions. This creates the potential for moral hazard.
I started ...
9
votes
4answers
422 views
How is motivation influenced by chance of reward?
Sometimes, I work on a project where there is a chance that the whole project will become irrelevant before it is finished. I have noticed that even though I believe that the risk of this happening is ...
17
votes
5answers
646 views
Why do higher incentives lead to lower performance for non-rudimentary tasks?
I have watched a number of times this excellent video where Dan Pink discusses the science of motivation. The video states that the higher incentives, the lower performance for non-rudimentary (not ...
10
votes
1answer
214 views
Modern replacement for Panksepp's “Affective Neuroscience” book?
Jaak Panksepp's book (Amazon link here) is a phenomenal and highly readable systems-based introduction to not only affective neuroscience, but the neuroscience of motivation in general. The problem ...
7
votes
1answer
187 views
Are there any modern mechanistic theories of motivation?
I remember hearing about the old 'drive' theory of motivation in Psych 101, and despite continuing my cognitive science education for another 4 years, that's the last theory of motivation I've heard ...
17
votes
3answers
3k views
Does evidence support Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs (shown below) is a popular concept and is often taught in basic psychology courses, and often less objectively taught in Business and Marketing courses.
A common problem ...
10
votes
2answers
577 views
Motivation vs Goal Oriented Behavior
What's the difference between these two terms when used in the context of cognitive psychology? To the best of my knowledge, research on 'Goal Oriented Behavior' refers to the subset of motivation ...
