Effects of reward and punishment motivation on working memory updating among Internet gaming disorder college students

Abstract: [Objective] To investigate the effects of Internet gaming disorder(IGD) on college students’ working memory updating, and the role of reward and punishment motivation in it.
[Methods] The study examined the effects of reward and punishment motivation on the working memory updating  of IGD college students by manipulating monetary rewards and losses respectively in the N-back task.
[Results] The results showed that the working memory updating of IGD college students was weaker, i.e., longer reaction time and lower accuracy; the reward motivation was able to increase the processing level of IGD college students, while the punishment motivation was only able to increase the accuracy of IGD college students, which was smaller than that of non-IGD college students.
[Limitations] The study revealed that reward and punishment motivation had significant effects on the working memory updating of IGD college students, and in the future, we can longitudinally investigate the retention time of reward and punishment motivation on the cognitive functioning effect of individuals from a temporal perspective.
[Conclusion] The study found that IGD college students’ working memory updating was impaired, and they were less sensitive to punishment in cognitive tasks.