Executive processes, such as attention, working memory and inhibition, constitute a set of processes that are particularly important for behavioral planning and production. Given limited processing capacity, how can the brain separate those stimuli that deserve further processing from those that are better left ignored, to efficiently guide behavior? Traditionally, both bottom-up and top-down processes are posited as potential solutions to the “limited processing-resources dilemma” faced by the brain's executive system. By using top-down control, the brain can more efficiently allocate its resources based on current behavioral goals and prior knowledge. At the same time, processing resources should preferentially shift to salient features of the environment. Based on behavioral evidence, both of these processes are intimately linked to reward and motivation, as described below. Furthermore, these findings mesh well with previous demonstrations that the motivational dimensions of (top-down) goals rely on the dopamine system and its projection sites (e.g., Schultz et al., 1992). Interestingly (bottom-up) stimulus salience is also encoded in specific nodes of the reward system, such as the caudate nucleus (e.g., Zink et al., 2006).