A cross-cultural comparison of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational drives for learning

Intrinsic motivational drives, like the autonomous feeling of control, and extrinsic motivational drives, like monetary reward, can benefit learning. Extensive research has focused on neurobiological and psychological factors that affect these drives, but our understanding of the sociocultural factors is limited. Here, we compared the effects of autonomy and rewards on episodic recognition memory between students from Dutch and Chinese universities. In an exploratory learning task, participants viewed partially obscured objects that they needed to subsequently remember. We independently manipulated autonomy, as volitional control over an exploration trajectory, as well as the chance to receive monetary rewards. The learning task was followed by memory tests for objects and locations. For both cultural groups, we found that participants learned better in autonomous than non-autonomous conditions. However, the beneficial effect of reward on memory performance was stronger for Chinese than for Dutch participants. By incorporating the sociocultural brain perspective, we discuss how differences in norms and values between Eastern and Western cultures can be integrated with the neurocognitive framework about dorsal lateral and ventral medial prefrontal cortex and dopaminergic reward modulations on learning and memory. These findings have important implications for understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms in which both autonomy and extrinsic rewards are commonly used to motivate students in the realm of education and urge more attention to investigate cultural differences in learning.