It’s about time: earlier rewards increase intrinsic motivation

Prior research on intrinsic motivation compared the presence versus absence of rewards. By contrast, we compare immediate versus delayed rewards, finding that more immediate rewards increase intrinsic motivation by creating a perceptual fusion between the activity and its goal (i.e., the reward). For example, receiving an immediate (vs. delayed) bonus increased the positive experience during an experimental task. We explore behavioral implications of our fusion model for increasing goal adherence.