Although the performance of simple cognitive tasks can be enhanced if an incentive is provided, the mechanisms enabling such motivational control are not known. This study sought to uncover how mechanisms of attention and readiness are altered by reward-associated incentive stimuli. We measured EEG/ERP activity as human adults viewed a high- or low-incentive cue, experienced a short preparation...

We present a brief overview of the incentive sensitization theory of addiction. This posits that addiction is caused primarily by drug-induced sensitization in the brain mesocorticolimbic systems that attribute incentive salience to reward-associated stimuli. If rendered hypersensitive, these systems cause pathological incentive motivation ('wanting') for drugs. We address some current question...

We investigate how explicit performance incentives in incomplete employment contracts interact with agents’ voluntary cooperation in one-shot and repeated gift-exchange experiments. If contracts are incentive compatible, agents choose their best-reply effort and there is no voluntary cooperation. By contrast, there is substantial voluntary cooperation if the contract is not incentive compatible...

Abstract: This paper designs an incentive contract menu to achieve long-term stability for electricity prices in a day-ahead electricity market. A bi-level Stackelberg game model is proposed to search for the optimal incentive mechanism under a one-leader and multi-followers gaming framework. A multi-agent simulation platform was developed to investigate the effectiveness of the incentive mecha...

Theories of incentive motivation attempt to capture the way in which objects and events in the world can acquire high motivational value and drive behavior, even in the absence of a clear biological need. In addition, for an individual to select the most appropriate goal, the incentive values of competing desirable objects need to be defined and compared. The present study examined the neural s...

Nursing home reimbursement systems which do not adjust payment levels to patient care needs lead to access problems for heavy-care patients. Unnecessarily long and costly hospital stays may result. A patient-based nursing home incentive reimbursement system has been designed and is being evaluated in a controlled field experiment in 36 California skilled nursing facilities. Incentives are paid ...

We present a brief overview of the incentive sensitization theory of addiction. This posits that addiction is caused primarily by drug-induced sensitization in the brain mesocorticolimbic systems that attribute incentive salience to reward-associated stimuli. If rendered hypersensitive, these systems cause pathological incentive motivation (‘wanting’) for drugs. We address some current question...

The paper first differentiates “control” and “incentive”. Then it shows that integration in which the principal gets ownership of the physical assets necessary for the agent to create values enhances control of the principal over the agent’s human capital and thus improve coordination ex post, but that reduces the agent’s ex ante incentive to make human capital investment and ex post incentive ...

BACKGROUND Response rates to postal questionnaires are falling and this threatens the external validity of survey findings. We wanted to establish whether the incentive of being entered into a prize draw to win a personal digital assistant (PDA) would increase the response rate for a national survey of consultant obstetricians and gynaecologists. METHODS A randomised controlled trial was cond...

We introduce and study a new auction model in which a certain type of goods is offered over a period of time, and buyers arrive at different times and stay until a common deadline (unless their purchase requests have been fulfilled). We examine in this model incentive compatible auction protocols (i.e., those that induce participants to bid their true valuations). We establish an interesting co...