Motivation and Cognitive Control

Recent research has focused on interactions between motivation and goal-directed behavior based on new research from many disciplines, including social, affective, and personality psychology, as well as cognitive, systems, and computational neuroscience. Cognitive and neuroscience oriented research has revealed exciting findings of motivational influences on brain activity and behavior within a number of domains, including episodic memory, working memory, attention, and executive control. In parallel, work conducted from a socioemotional or economic perspective has suggested that motivation-related constructs are integral to understanding the selection and pursuit of behavioral goals, including the nature of individual differences, unconscious influences, the role of beliefs and self-concepts and biases in decision-making.

This volume if the first to synthesize and integrate the various research perspectives and provides essential reading for students and researchers on the cutting-edge of this new and highly exciting research interface.