Taken together, these studies suggest that during adolescence, motivational cues of potential reward are particularly salient and can lead to improved performance when provided as a reinforcer or rewarded outcome, but to riskier choices or suboptimal choices when provided as a cue. In the latter case, the motivational cue can diminish effective goal-oriented behavior. Furthermore, these studies suggest that sensitivity to rewards and sensation- seeking behavior are distinct from impulsivity with very different developmental patterns (curvilinear function versus a linear function, respectively). This distinction is further evident in a recent study by Steinberg et al. 42 using self- report measures of sensation- seeking and impulsivity. They tested whether the often-conflated constructs of sensation-seeking and impulsivity develop along different timetables in nearly 1000 individuals between the ages of 10 and 30. The results showed that differences in sensation-seeking with age followed a curvilinear pattern, with peaks in sensation-seeking increasing between 10 and 15 years and declining or remaining stable thereafter. In contrast, age differences in impulsivity followed a linear pattern, with decreasing impulsivity with age in a linear fashion (see Figure
