Reward delays quitting in visual search.

Reward motivates goal-directed behaviors, leading to faster reaction time (RT) and lower error rate in searching for a target in the reward condition than in the no-reward condition in target-discrimination tasks. However, it is unclear how reward influences target detection in which participants are required to judge whether a predesignated target is present or absent. Here, we asked participants to complete a target-detection search task in which the color of the search array indicated the reward availability of the current trial.

Reward makes the rhythmic sampling of spatial attention emerge earlier.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates a rhythmic characteristic of spatial attention, with the corresponding behavioral performance fluctuating periodically. Here, we investigate whether and how the rhythmic characteristic of spatial attention is affected by reward-an important factor in attentional selection. We adopted the classic spatial cueing paradigm with a time-resolved stimulus-onset-asynchrony (SOA) between the spatial cue and the target such that responses to the target in different phases could be examined.

A value-driven McGurk effect: Value-associated faces enhance the influence of visual information on audiovisual speech perception and its eye movement pattern.

This study investigates whether and how value-associated faces affect audiovisual speech perception and its eye movement pattern. Participants were asked to learn to associate particular faces with or without monetary reward in the training phase, and, in the subsequent test phase, to identify syllables that the talkers had said in video clips in which the talkers' faces had or had not been associated with reward. The syllables were either congruent or incongruent with the talkers' mouth movements.

Reward expectation modulates multiple stages of auditory conflict control.

Although mounting evidence has shown that reward can improve conflict control in the visual domain, little is known about whether and how reward affects conflict processing in the auditory domain. In the present study, we adopted an auditory Stroop task in which the meaning of a sound word ('male' or 'female') could be either congruent or incongruent with the gender of the voice (male or female speaker), and the participants were asked to discriminate the gender of the voice (the phonetic task) or the meaning of the word (the semantic task). Importantly, an auditory cue signalling a potential reward or no-reward for the current trial was presented prior to the sound word.

Reward enhances cross-modal conflict control in object categorization: Electrophysiological evidence.

Cross-modal conflict arises when information from different sensory modalities are incompatible with each other. Such conflict may influence the processing of stimuli in the task-relevant modality and call for cognitive control to resolve this conflict. Here, we investigate how reward modulates cross-modal conflict control during object categorization.

Reward interacts with modality shift to reduce cross-modal conflict.

Previous studies have shown that reward can enhance cognitive control and reduce conflict in visual processing. Here we investigate (a) whether and how reward influences cross-modal conflict control and (b) how the shift of attention across modalities modulates the effect of reward on cross-modal conflict control. In four experiments, a cue indicating the reward availability of a given trial (reward vs.

Independent effects of reward expectation and spatial orientation on the processing of emotional facial expressions.

The present study investigated the effect of reward expectation and spatial orientation on the processing of emotional facial expressions, using a spatial cue-target paradigm. A colored cue was presented at the left or right side of the central fixation point, with its color indicating the monetary reward stakes of a given trial (incentive vs. non-incentive), followed by the presentation of an emotional facial target (angry vs.

Task relevance regulates the interaction between reward expectation and emotion.

In the present study, we investigated the impact of reward expectation on the processing of emotional facial expression using a cue-target paradigm. A cue indicating the reward condition of each trial (incentive vs. non-incentive) was followed by the presentation of a picture of an emotional face, the target.

Attentional selection within and across hemispheres: implications for the perceptual load theory.

The perceptual load of a given task affects attentional selection, with the selection occurring earlier when the load is high and later when the load is low. Recent evidence suggests that local competitive interaction may underlie the perceptual load effect and determine to what extent a task-irrelevant distractor is processed. Here, we asked participants to search for a target bar among homogeneously oriented bars (the low load conditions) or heterogeneously oriented bars (the high load conditions) in the central display, while ignoring a congruent or incongruent flanker bar presented to the left or right side of the central display, or a bar presented at one of the six positions outer to the central display.