<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc</a><p>This is the RSA Animate of Dan Pink&#x27;s lecture on motivation. He suggests there is a division between physical and mental tasks. This was tested with several experiments involving different reward schemes.<p><pre><code>    As long as the task involved only mechanical skill, bonuses worked as they
    would be expected. The higher the pay, the better the performance.
    [...]
    Once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward
    led to poorer performance.

</code></pre>
edit:<p>The idea that penalties trump rewards probably explains why I&#x27;ve always liked roguelike games (and Touhou-style shooters). I&#x27;ve been playing way too much <i>Nuclear Throne</i> recently (and <i>Risk Of Rain</i>). As a roguelite, it strongly embraces the idea of &quot;permadeath&quot;. Robotron&#x2F;SmashTV style extra-fast action, that where you can never make a mistake (a single hit can end the game).<p>Also, Nuclear Throne demonstrates an important implementation detail in something that uses such a strong punishment-based motivator: never put anything in the way of the player <i>restarting</i> after their mistakes. In NT, once the death animation has played (only a few frames, at most 200-300ms), you can hit &quot;R&quot; to restart the game at the first level. No delay whatsoever. Sure, the penalty is harsh, but you can try to overcome that failure immediately.