Code for: Nagel, Morgan, Gürsoy, Sander, Kern, & Feld. Memory for Rewards Guides Retrieval

Please refer to the README file and the codebooks for further details about each data file. Abstract Rewards paid out for successful retrieval motivate the formation of long-term memory. However, it has been argued that the Motivated Learning Task does not measure reward effects on memory strength but decision-making during retrieval. We report three large-scale online experiments in healthy participants (N = 200, N = 205, N = 187) that inform this debate. In experiment 1, we found that explicit stimulus-reward associations formed during encoding influence response strategies at retrieval. In experiment 2, reward affected memory strength and decision-making strategies. In experiment 3, reward affected decision-making strategies only. These data support a theoretical framework that assumes that promised rewards not only increase memory strength, but additionally lead to the formation of stimulus-reward associations that influence decisions at retrieval.