Greater Competence Perceptions Increase Task Interest; However, Anticipation of Performance Feedback Grows As Perceptions of Competence Are Threatened.

It is well established that perceptions of competence facilitate intrinsic motivation. However, neural correlates of this process have not been studied. Win-Loss manipulation during a competition affected task interest as expected. Yet, the stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) measure of affective-motivational processing demonstrates prolonged exposure to losing enhanced anticipation of task feedback.