Motivation, Effort, and the Neural Network Model

169 Pages·2020·2.132 MB·English

by  Theodore Wasserman, Lori Wasserman

Neural Network Model: Applications and Implications
Theodore Wasserman
Lori Wasserman
Motivation,
Effort, and
the Neural
Network Model
Neural Network Model: Applications and
Implications
Series Editor
Theodore Wasserman Wasserman & Drucker PA, Boca Raton, FL, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16167
Theodore Wasserman • Lori Wasserman
Motivation, Effort, and the
Neural Network Model
Theodore Wasserman Lori Wasserman
Institution for Neurocognitive Learning Institution for Neurocognitive Learning
Therapy Therapy
Wasserman & Drucker PA Wasserman & Drucker PA
Boca Raton, FL, USA Boca Raton, FL, USA
Neural Network Model: Applications and Implications
ISBN 978-3-030-58723-9 ISBN 978-3-030-58724-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58724-6
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Preface
When we set out to write a book about motivation, we can honestly report that we
were not entirely certain where we would wind up. That is in no small part due to
the fact that Western sciences are often viewed as completely disparate. We were
going to attempt to integrate research findings from a number of these seemingly
disparate disciplines into a cogent, but new, comprehensive model. The fields of
cognitive neuroscience, neurophysiology, clinical neuropsychology, and develop-
mental neuroscience are all drawn upon to produce what we think is an integrated
and conceptually intact whole that explains how the construct of motivation oper-
ates in the human brain.
This is not to say that we didn’t have some conjectures about how it all might
work, we did. We also had some ideas about what our findings might mean for the
practice of clinical neuropsychology in particular and the treatment of mental health
in general. We can now report to you that some of our ideas were right, and some of
them needed modification. That is the way of science.
What is also clear at this point, is that some of our findings have potentially sig-
nificant implications for important areas of neuropsychology and clinical psychol-
ogy. Specifically, the implications of our work will impact issues such as effort
testing in neuropsychology and improving motivation in clinical psychology. Our
work will suggest some new ways of looking at these issues, and some new ways of
assessing motivation in general. Candidly, the data we review suggest that some of
the ways the field has been looking at these constructs may be in error. In other
instances our work suggests that certain things the field has taken for granted may
deserve a second look because, perhaps, we should have not been so certain about
them in the first place. Finally, the work will suggest some entirely new directions,
such as the creation of a completely new class of disorders of mental health based
upon how the brain operates, rather than on the behavior it produces.
While we understand that some of our suggestions and conclusions will chal-
lenge some long-standing beliefs, it was not our intention to be contentious or to
argue for one perspective or another. It was our intention to create a neural network
based model of motivation and its related construct of effort and we went where the
research took us. After reading our work, we hope you will agree with us about the
v
vi Preface
necessity of endeavors such as this. We continue to believe that a neural network
based reimagining of how neuropsychology views constructs such as motivation,
effort, and mental health is fundamental for the health and advancement of our field.
After creating a network model, we attempted to look at some of the implications
of that model for the field in general. We hope that you will consider our view of
these implications. Our list is not exhaustive and we are sure that there are, and will
be, many others. We also hope that we have provided you with enough data to gen-
erate your own ideas and form your own conclusions. We understand that there
might be some disagreement about some of our implications, and we accept that as
the process of science. Disagreement about the implications should in no way
detract from the empirical validity of the model itself. We look forward to the con-
tinuing scientific dialogue.
Boca Raton, FL, USA Theodore Wasserman
Lori Wasserman
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 How Do We Determine the Definition of Motivation? . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 How Do We Measure Motivation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Why this book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Traditional Models of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 Maslow Hierarchy of Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Self-Determination Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Organismic Integration Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 Expectancy–Value Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Attribution Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6 Social-Cognitive Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.7 Goal Orientation (Achievement Oriented) Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.8 Unified Theories of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 The Development of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1 From Piaget to a Vertical Brain Model: Cortical
and Subcortical Involvement in Child Development
and the Etiology of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2 What Is a Drive and What Is Its Relationship to Motivation? . . . . . 23
3.3 Stimulus Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.4 The Orienting Reflex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.5 Arousal and the Orienting Reflex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.6 The Arousal System in Infancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.7 Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.8 Arousal and Its Relationship to Attention and Motivation. . . . . . . . 31
3.9 Boredom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.10 Adaptive and Defensive Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.11 Exploratory Behavior: Locomotor Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.12 Exploratory Behavior: Investigatory Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
vii
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3.13 Critical Thinking and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.14 Dispositions/Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.15 Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.16 Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.17 The Reduction of Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.18 Arousal Potential, Perceptual Curiosity and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.19 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 The Role of the Reward Recognition Network
in Understanding Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1 Some Background on Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2 Network Structures of Reward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.3 Neural Networks and Behavioral Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.4 Network Anatomy of Value-Based Decision-Making
in the Human Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.5 Expectancy Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.6 Probabilistic Reward Calculations and the Human Brain . . . . . . . . 49
4.7 Expected Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.8 Phases of Reward Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.9 Credit Assignment Problem and a Potential Solution . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.10 Equifinality, Multifinality, and Counterfinality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.11 Interaction of Emotions in the Operation
of the Reward Recognition Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.12 Core Brain Dimensions and Mental Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.13 Gating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.14 Role of Reward Recognition in the Gating Network . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.15 Motivation and Gating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.16 Attention-Gated Reinforcement Learning (AGREL) . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.17 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5 Motivation as Goal-Directed Behavior: The Effect
of Decision- Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.1 The Neurophysiology of Decision-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.2 The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)
and Effort-Based Valuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.3 Behavioral Economics, Cost and Valuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.4 Decision-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.5 Reinforcement Learning Theories of Decision-Making . . . . . . . . . 66
5.6 Economic Models of Decision-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.7 Neuroeconomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.8 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.9 Prediction Error and Valuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.10 Cost of Believing and Acting on a Predictor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.11 Things that Discount the Probabilistic Value of Future Goals . . . . . 69
Contents ix
5.12 Discounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.13 Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.14 Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.15 Cognitive Effort as a Mediator of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.16 The Possible Paradox of Effort as a Cost Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.17 Effort Is Usually Thought to Decrease Valuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.18 Effort Also Adds Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6 Predicting Errors and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.1 What Is a Prediction Error and How Can It Be Used
When Discussing Motivation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.2 The Dopamine Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.3 Reward Salience: Incentive Salience “Wanting”
Versus Ordinary Wanting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
How Does this Happen? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.4 Dopamine in Motivation and Salience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.5 How Prediction Error Modifies Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.6 The Human Brain Is Designed to Predict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7 Motivation Potential Is Not Motivation in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
7.1 The Interaction of Motivation and Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7.2 Initiating Motivation Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7.3 Allocation and Expenditure of Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
7.4 The Relationship of Motivation to Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
7.5 Value Adders and Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
8 Motivation: State, Trait, or Both . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.1 State Versus Trait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.2 Motivation Is a State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.3 Motivation Is a State. The Role of the Basal Ganglia (BG) . . . . . . . 95
8.4 Motivation Is a Trait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8.5 Internalized Motivation as a Trait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
8.6 Motivation Does Not Always Need Goals So Maybe
It’s a Trait After All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
8.7 Motivation as State and Trait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
8.8 Motivation as a Continuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
8.9 Motivation as a Partial Function of the Willingness
to Accept Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
8.10 Motivation as Temperament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
8.11 Motivation as the Potential to Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100