From Curiosity-Based-Learning to Reward-Incentivized-Learning

Curiosity is a powerful motivational force, which has critical influence over day-to-day human behavior. It has been identified as a driving force of child development and one of the most important impetuses to education. Today's educational practises typically focus on reward-focused incentive systems (such as gold stars, honor rolls, grades) to motivate or reinforce student learning. Our study highlights the differences between the learning process as a result of curiosity and the effect of reward on it.

It was found that a shift of focus that occurs from 'learning' to 'performing' in students placed in reward-contingent groups. Due to this shift of focus, two important effects could be noticed. First, students in the rewarded groups have higher 'persistence' in the activity but learn the subject less comprehensively (i.e. lesser 'active engagement'). Second, we report a significantly lesser retention of the subject matter in the reward group as compared to the non-reward group. Finally, we distinguish the effects of engagement-contingent reward and performance-contingent reward groups.