Recruiting

Rewards & Challenge Preferences

Sponsor:

UCLA

Code:

NCT07557732

Conditions

Performance vs. Effort Rewards

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 9 - 13

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Performance Rewards

Effort Rewards

Study Details

Brief summary:

Brief Summary: The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the influences of children's prior experiences with rewards following successes at school and interventions aimed at influencing children's preferences for challenging cognitive tasks.

The main questions this study aims to answer are as follows:

1. Does the frequency of process-based rewards (e.g., rewards for working hard) vs. outcomes-based rewards (i.e., rewards for a good grade) predict children's preferences for challenging cognitive tasks?
2. Does providing rewards for taking on effortful cognitive tasks increase children's preferences for challenging cognitive tasks more than providing rewards for performing well on cognitive tasks?
3. Does receiving rewards for taking on effortful cognitive tasks increase children's challenge-seeking in novel tasks and questionnaires relevant for academic achievement that have not been previously linked with rewards?

Participants will complete the following tasks:

1. A matrix completion problem solving task, with options to seek tips for solving problems and options to quit early.
2. A response inhibition task, with options to complete a harder or easier version of the task.
3. A cognitive flexibility task, with options to complete a harder or easier version of the task.
4. A puzzle completion task, with an option to quit early.
5. Answer a set of questions about academic effort
6. Parents will complete a set of questions about how they responded to children's recent successes and failures at school.

Conditions

Performance vs. Effort Rewards

Study ID

NCT07557732

Start date

Apr 8, 2026

Status verified date

Apr, 2026

Completion date

Sep 1, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep 1, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 9 - 13

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

\- Children aged 9.00-13.00 years

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Known or diagnosed developmental disorder (autism, ADHD, other learning disorders or developmental delays)

Study Design

Enrollment

180 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Effort-based Reward Contingency

Great rewards are offered for children who repeatedly decide to complete a more difficult response inhibition task.

experimental: Performance-based Reward Contingency

Rewards are provided for children who perform quickly and accurately, regardless of which response inhibition task option they select to play.

Interventions

Performance Rewards

Participants receive more rewards for fast and accurate task performance and fewer rewards for slow and accurate task performance.

Effort Rewards

Participants receive more rewards for choosing to complete the more difficult task and responding accurately and fewer rewards for choosing to complete the less difficult task and responding accurately.

Primary outcome measure

  • Cognitive Effort Avoidance - Reinforced Task [ Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention ]
  • Cognitive Effort Avoidance - Novel Task [ Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention and primary outcome 1 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Jesse C Niebaum, PhD

530-752-1011jcniebaum@ucdavis.edu

Yuko Munakata, PhD

ymunakata@ucdavis.edu

Locations

Center for Mind and Brain

Recruiting

Davis, California, United States, 95616

Contacts

Laura Birch

530-752-1011cmbadmin@ucdavis.edu

jniebaum@gmail.com

More Information

Sponsor

University of California, Davis

Last update posted

Apr 29, 2026

Last verified

Apr, 2026

Keywords

  • Mental Effort, Executive Function, Process-based praise

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of California, Davis on 2026-04-29.