The Effects of Reward Anticipation on Cognitive Control and Memory Encoding Processes: A Meta-Analysis
Reward anticipation has been shown to influence cognitive control and memory encoding, but a wide variety of cognitive task designs have been used to investigate both cognitive control and memory performance without being systematically accounted for when examining variability in reward effects on performance. To investigate the effects of reward anticipation on cognitive performance across varying task paradigms and design elements, we are conducting a meta-analysis. Specifically, studies examining reward anticipation effects on cognitive control or memory encoding were extracted from the databases of Pubmed, PsycINFO and Web of Science. The extracted studies are currently undergoing a series of screenings against inclusion and exclusion criteria to determine final inclusion. Subsequently, an analysis will be performed examining the effect of reward anticipation on cognitive performance in terms of effect size. Additionally, different task design elements will be examined as potential moderators affecting the strength of the relationship between reward and task performance. The analysis will be performed using T the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA,v3) codebook. This research is the first of its kind using a meta-analysis approach to systematically quantify reward anticipation effects on cognition in multiple studies across both cognitive control and memory domains.