The relationship between reward and probability: Evidence that exploration may be intrinsically rewarding

ABSTRACT

The probability of an event occurring and the reward associated with the event can both modulate behaviour. Response times are decreased to stimuli that are either more rewarding or more likely. These two factors can be combined to give an Expected Value (EV) associated with the event (i.e., probability of the event x reward magnitude). In four experiments we investigate the effect of reward and probability on both saccadic and manual responses. When tested separately we find evidence for both a reward and probability effect across response types. When manipulations of reward magnitude and probability of the event were combined, the probability modulations dominated and these data were not well accounted for by the EV. However, a post-hoc model that included an additional intrinsic reward associated with responding provided an excellent account for the data. We argue that reward consists of both an explicit and intrinsic component. In our task, the saccadic and manual responses are linked to the information provided by the targets and the goals of the task, and successful completion of these is in itself rewarding. As a result, targets associated with a higher probability of being presented have a higher intrinsic reward.

KEYWORDS:

• Probability
• reward
• saccades
• expected value

Acknowledgements

We thank Chris Kent for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and members of the Bristol Decision Making Group for ongoing discussion about the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Iain D. Gilchrist http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2070-6679

Notes

1 The means in this analysis are slightly different from the main results due to response errors (but not time-out errors) being included in this calculation. This is done to maximise the number of trials we have for this analysis particularly for the low probability trials.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council: [Grant Number EP/I032622/1, EP/M000885/1].