Katherine M. Banko

Katherine M. Banko is a researcher whose published work examines rewards and intrinsic motivation. She earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Alberta in 2007. Her dissertation, Increasing Intrinsic Motivation Using Rewards: The Role of the Social Context, reflects her interest in how the conditions surrounding a reward matter.

Banko coauthored a 2001 meta-analysis with Judy Cameron and W. David Pierce. They concluded that rewards did not have uniformly negative effects on intrinsic motivation: results differed with initial task interest, the form of the reward, and its connection to performance. Their conclusions differed from those of another prominent meta-analysis, making this an area of research debate rather than a settled rule that rewards either help or harm.

She also coauthored experiments on performance standards and achievement-based rewards. A 2003 study found that students offered rewards while meeting progressively more demanding puzzle-solving standards spent more time on the task afterward than students in the comparison conditions. A 2005 study reported increased subsequent task interest and time on a problem-solving activity when undergraduates received achievement-based rewards during learning or testing. These findings concern specific experimental tasks and measures, not a demonstrated method for changing workplace culture. Their practical implication is a question worth investigating—not a universal prescription: what does an incentive recognize, and how might people experience it?