Engaging Mental Effort: Process- and Person-Based Reward Experiences, Effort Reinforcement Intervention, and Cascading Effects on Challenging Tasks (RoSE2025)

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Performance vs. Effort Rewards
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Effort Rewards; Behavioral: Performance Rewards

Detailed Description

In Session 1, 9.00 - 13.00-year-olds will complete the Persistence, Effort, Resilience, and Challenge-seeking task with matrix completion problems. Then, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: A group rewarded for selecting a more challenging cognitive task over an easier cognitive task or a group rewarded for performing well regardless of which cognitive task they select to play. Participants will then complete the response inhibition task, with easier or harder options, and the task switching task, with easier or harder options, prior to receiving rewards, while receiving rewards (response inhibition only), and after receiving rewards. Then, participants will answer questions about their task preferences and questions about their academic effort. Parents will complete questionnaires about how they responded to children's recent successes and failures at school and about their efforts in helping children succeed in school.

In Session 2, approximately one week later, participants will complete the response inhibition tasks while receiving rewards according to their respective group assignments. Then, participants will complete the response inhibition task and task-switching task without rewards, an impossible puzzle task, and the Persistence, Effort, Resilience, and Challenge-seeking task. Lastly, participants will answer questions about their academic effort and general preferences for engaging in mental effort. Parents will complete questionnaires about how they responded to children's recent successes and failures at school.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 180
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Yuko Munakata, PhD; Email: ymunakata@ucdavis.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Jesse C Niebaum, PhD; Phone Number: 530-752-1011; Email: jcniebaum@ucdavis.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Davis, California, United States, 95616
      • Recruiting
      • Center for Mind and Brain
      • Contact: Laura Birch; Phone Number: 530-752-1011; Email: cmbadmin@ucdavis.edu
      • Contact: Email: jniebaum@gmail.com
      • Sub-Investigator: Jesse Niebaum, PhD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- Children aged 9.00-13.00 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Known or diagnosed developmental disorder (autism, ADHD, other learning disorders or developmental delays)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Effort-based Reward Contingency; Great rewards are offered for children who repeatedly decide to complete a more difficult response inhibition task.	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.
Experimental: Performance-based Reward Contingency; Rewards are provided for children who perform quickly and accurately, regardless of which response inhibition task option they select to play.	Behavioral: Performance Rewards; Participants receive more rewards for fast and accurate task performance and fewer rewards for slow and accurate task performance.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Cognitive Effort Avoidance - Reinforced Task	Relative proportion of Less-Demanding Task Selections after reinforcement (Test - Baseline)	Immediately after the intervention
Cognitive Effort Avoidance - Novel Task	Relative proportion of less-demanding task selections from the novel task after reinforcement (Test - Baseline)	Immediately after the intervention and primary outcome 1

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Challenge-Seeking	Relative change from Session 1 Baseline to Session 2 test (1-week later) in overall challenge-seeking composite metric from the Performance, Effort, Resilience, and Challenge-seeking task	Immediately after the follow-up intervention dose
Persistence on Impossible Puzzles	Time spent persisting on impossible puzzles prior to response deadline or skipping the puzzle problem.	Immediately after the follow-up intervention dose and secondary outcome measure 1.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Davis
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Investigators: Study Director: Jesse Niebaum, PhD, University of California, Davis

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 8, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 17, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 24, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): April 29, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 29, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 24, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mental Effort, Executive Function, Process-based praise
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1518244-A; R01HD086184 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No