This project involves a series of experiments to study the effects of monetary incentives on the performance of a mental arithmetic "production" task. The nature of the contingencies will be varied to create an experimental design comparing the effects of large, medium, and small monetary payoffs in piece rate, variable ratio, quota, and tournament incentive schemes, including flat hourly wage conditions. To a much greater extent than in previous research, we will measure the effects of incentive scheme contingency and size of monetary award on the fine-grained structure of behavior. It is expected that the results of this systematic study will lead to well-calibrated tasks which can be used in other experimental studies of incentive effects which should yield to greater generalizability of research findings.
