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Engaging Mental Effort: Process- and Person-Based Reward Experiences, Effort Reinforcement Intervention, and Cascading Effects on Challenging Tasks

NCT07557732 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 180

Last updated 2026-04-29

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Brief Summary: The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the influences of children's prior experiences with rewards following successes at school and interventions aimed at influencing children's preferences for challenging cognitive tasks.

The main questions this study aims to answer are as follows:

1. Does the frequency of process-based rewards (e.g., rewards for working hard) vs. outcomes-based rewards (i.e., rewards for a good grade) predict children's preferences for challenging cognitive tasks?
2. Does providing rewards for taking on effortful cognitive tasks increase children's preferences for challenging cognitive tasks more than providing rewards for performing well on cognitive tasks?
3. Does receiving rewards for taking on effortful cognitive tasks increase children's challenge-seeking in novel tasks and questionnaires relevant for academic achievement that have not been previously linked with rewards?

Participants will complete the following tasks:

1. A matrix completion problem solving task, with options to seek tips for solving problems and options to quit early.
2. A response inhibition task, with options to complete a harder or easier version of the task.
3. A cognitive flexibility task, with options to complete a harder or easier version of the task.
4. A puzzle completion task, with an option to quit early.
5. Answer a set of questions about academic effort
6. Parents will complete a set of questions about how they responded to children's recent successes and failures at school.

Conditions

  • Performance vs. Effort Rewards

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Performance Rewards

Participants receive more rewards for fast and accurate task performance and fewer rewards for slow and accurate task performance.

BEHAVIORAL

Effort Rewards

Participants receive more rewards for choosing to complete the more difficult task and responding accurately and fewer rewards for choosing to complete the less difficult task and responding accurately.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

    collaborator NIH

  • University of California, Davis

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Jesse Niebaum, PhD · University of California, Davis

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
9 Years
Max Age
13 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-04-08
Primary Completion
2028-09-01
Completion
2028-09-01

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07557732 on ClinicalTrials.gov