The Rewarding Consequences of Nostalgia

A psychology seminar in which Nicholas J. Kelley of the University of Southampton presents research on how nostalgia boosts reward-related motivation and brain responses.

Nicholas J. Kelley (University of Southampton) presents findings from five studies on nostalgia's role in reward processing, part of the Department of Psychology's seminar series running through the Autumn and Spring terms. Two preregistered studies linked trait nostalgia to all seven dimensions of the positive valence system, while induced nostalgia selectively increased reward valuation, action selection and initial reward responsiveness. Three further experiments in the UK and China used electroencephalography to show that nostalgia enhances the reward positivity, an event-related potential appearing roughly 200–350 milliseconds after feedback. The talk extends the regulatory model of nostalgia, suggesting its motivational effects involve rapid neural evaluation of rewarding outcomes.