The Development of Cognitive Reward Sensitivity

The Development of Cognitive Reward Sensitivity | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Development of Cognitive Reward Sensitivity Tal Nahari, India Pinhorn, Tali Sharot This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8680452/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Children drive pleasure from a range of cognitive activities. This raises a central question: does the developing mind treat cognitive outcomes as a distinct class of rewards, and how does sensitivity to these ‘cognitive rewards’ change across development? Across two large studies (N = 588, 4-12 year-olds) we show that diverse cognitive outcomes (including knowledge gain, uncertainty reduction, novelty, and agency expansion) robustly elicit reward-consistent behavior. Crucially, dimensionality reduction analyses revealed a cognitive specific reward component that was dissociable from sensitivity to non-cognitive rewards such as social and sensory rewards. Sensitivity to cognitive rewards followed an inverted-U trajectory, rising from early childhood, peaking in middle childhood, and declining toward adolescence. These findings reveals that cognitive pleasure constitutes a partially distinct reward domain with a unique developmental window, which may be especially important in shaping the motivation to learn. Developmental Neuroscience Psychology Cognitive Neuroscience Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8680452","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":579444895,"identity":"be80a755-1324-4437-802b-81cc21ccb0bf","order_by":0,"name":"Tal Nahari","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAyUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJACZiDm4WdgYDwA5vIQUM4D0yLZwMBAmhYGgwPEarFn4D34uaDmnozxjeQHBxhq7BgMzhwgZAtfsvSMY8U8ZjfSgBYdS2YwONtASAuPgTQPWwJQSw7QYWwHGAzOE/QLj/Fvnn8JPMYzQFr+EafFTJq3LYHHQAKohbHtABEOO8xjZs3bl8AjceaZwYHEvmQeSULeZ2/vMb7N8y3Bnr89+eGDD9/s5PjOJBBwGTMyJ4FwrIyCUTAKRsEoIAYAAIDCOY6Gti+AAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University College London, 2 Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tal","middleName":"","lastName":"Nahari","suffix":""},{"id":579444896,"identity":"b557ffd9-16c1-48e1-9415-496eb9812f28","order_by":1,"name":"India Pinhorn","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University College London, 2 Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"India","middleName":"","lastName":"Pinhorn","suffix":""},{"id":579444897,"identity":"c3ef7109-4c30-4703-9426-830a4cd9c3ab","order_by":2,"name":"Tali Sharot","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAxUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNjDJz8DAeADM4iGgngeqRUKygYGBRC0GB4jVYs/A/uzBzz02dcY3kh8cYKixYzA4c4CQLTzmhj3P0iTMbqQBLTqWzGBwtoGgFjYJngOHgVpygA5jO8BgcJ6gX9ifSf4BajGeAdLyjygtDGbSIFsMJIBaGNsOEOGwwzxm0jIH0iRnnHlmcCCxL5lHkpD32dvbn0m+OWDDz9+e/PDBh292cnxnEgi4jBmZk0A4VkbBKBgFo2AUEAMAOJA9unrAui8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University College London, 2 Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tali","middleName":"","lastName":"Sharot","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-23 15:00:00","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":true,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"humanSubjectConsent":true,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8680452/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8680452/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":101207123,"identity":"e7c35aa1-75cb-4122-b5ad-a7742d0b44ff","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-27 09:57:37","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":7116655,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"CognitiveRewardsAcrossDev.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8680452/v1_covered_002631bb-4bd8-4d53-957a-7e464b9f470b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Development of Cognitive Reward Sensitivity\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"University College London","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8680452/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8680452/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eChildren drive pleasure from a range of cognitive activities. This raises a central question: does the developing mind treat cognitive outcomes as a distinct class of rewards, and how does sensitivity to these ‘cognitive rewards’ change across development? Across two large studies (N = 588, 4-12 year-olds) we show that diverse cognitive outcomes (including knowledge gain, uncertainty reduction, novelty, and agency expansion) robustly elicit reward-consistent behavior. Crucially, dimensionality reduction analyses revealed a cognitive specific reward component that was dissociable from sensitivity to non-cognitive rewards such as social and sensory rewards. Sensitivity to cognitive rewards followed an inverted-U trajectory, rising from early childhood, peaking in middle childhood, and declining toward adolescence. These findings reveals that cognitive pleasure constitutes a partially distinct reward domain with a unique developmental window, which may be especially important in shaping the motivation to learn.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The Development of Cognitive Reward Sensitivity","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-01-27 05:29:52","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8680452/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"25bd09d3-a625-4caa-a2bd-9b03c67aa733","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 27th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":61654229,"name":"Developmental Neuroscience"},{"id":61654230,"name":"Psychology"},{"id":61654231,"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-01-27T05:29:52+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-01-27 05:29:52","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8680452","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8680452","identity":"rs-8680452","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}