Reward Anticipation and Motivation¶
Scope: Anticipation of reward, consumption of reward, incentive salience, effort allocation, approach motivation, avoidance motivation.
Out of scope: Motivation as a trait; reward sensitivity as an individual difference.
The appetitive/aversive axis pair was collapsed during 2026-04-15 (dropped as stimulus properties rather than processes); Approach and Avoidance motivation are retained. :::
This category contains 6 processes.
Approach motivation
Process ID: hed_approach_motivation
Tendency to engage with stimuli associated with positive outcomes.
Tasks
The following tasks engage this process:
Fundamental references
Gray (1982) The Neuropsychology of Anxiety
Recent references
Elliot (2006) Motivation and Emotion 30:111–116
Avoidance motivation
Process ID: hed_avoidance_motivation
Tendency to disengage from stimuli associated with negative outcomes.
Tasks
The following tasks engage this process:
Fundamental references
Gray (1982) The Neuropsychology of Anxiety
Recent references
Elliot (2006) Motivation and Emotion 30:111–116
Effort allocation
Process ID: hed_effort_allocation
Decision to expend physical or cognitive effort as a function of expected reward and cost.
Tasks
The following tasks engage this process:
Fundamental references
Salamone, Correa, Farrar & Mingote (2007) Psychopharmacology 191:461–482
Recent references
Westbrook & Braver (2015) Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 15:395–415
Incentive salience
Process ID: hed_incentive_salience
“Wanting” attributed to reward-predictive cues, distinct from “liking.”
Tasks
The following tasks engage this process:
Fundamental references
Berridge & Robinson (1998) Brain Research Reviews 28:309–369
Reward anticipation
Process ID: hed_reward_anticipation
Affective and neural response to cues predicting upcoming reward.
Tasks
The following tasks engage this process:
Fundamental references
Knutson, Adams, Fong & Hommer (2001) Journal of Neuroscience 21:RC159
Recent references
Oldham, Murawski, Fornito, Youssef, Yücel & Lorenzetti (2018) Human Brain Mapping 39:3398–3418
Reward consumption
Process ID: hed_reward_consumption
Affective and neural response to receipt of reward.
No tasks in the current catalog are linked to this process.
Fundamental references
Berridge & Kringelbach (2008) Psychopharmacology 199:457–480
Recent references
Berridge & Kringelbach (2015) Neuron 86:646–664