The purpose of the project was to develop and evaluate a training program in self regulatory skills with approximately 40 trainable mentally retarded students (TMR) (mean age 18 years) and to determine the effect of the acquired self regulatory skills on task performance and self concept. In Phase 1, six preliminary studies attempted to determine…

This paper reviews the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in children's learning. The paper contends that two types of learning exist: self-initiated learning which is intrinsically motivated, and learning initiated by another person which involves external rewards. The paper suggests that motivation is not unidimensional and that task…

Two studies examined the relationship between preschool and elementary school children's ability to delay gratification and their school behaviors, after controlling for differences in socioeconomic status (SES). Children's gratification control was measured through an age-appropriate dilemma that forced each child to exhibit gratification control…

This paper discusses cooperative learning as a teaching method that uses intrinsic rewards, or rewards that come from within a student, in the education of young children. The developmental perspective of cooperative learning, which suggests that peer interaction, without the use of extrinsic rewards, leads to intellectual and social growth, is…

This paper makes suggestions for adapting training and staff utilization to organizational restructuring, and responsiveness to social needs. The ideal training format for organizational innovation would require selecting, assembling, protecting, and encouraging people, from both within and outside the institution, who are best equipped to…

This study investigated whether affective reactions in achievement settings were related to self-esteem. Subjects were 308 undergraduate university students displaying affective reactions to various academic situations portrayed in short stories. Resulting biserial correlations indicate that affective reactions to success and failure were related…

Assesses the extent to which children can be taught to increase the frequency of good things in their day and to be more aware of these highlights. A study of 39 students who participated in a positive perspectives intervention program showed both an increased awareness of highlights and positive feelings. (RJM)

The quality of education in the United States has been seriously damaged by two factors: equality of opportunity equated with the results of education (unless all students perform equally well, the system is judged to be unjust); and societal preoccupation with self-satisfaction and rejection of personal responsibility. (MLW)

The purpose of this study was to examine self-reinforcement as an agent of behavior change with children who were deficient in desired attention behaviors. Twenty three first and second grade school children were taught through external reinforcement procedures to raise their level of attention on a simple discrimination task. Subjects in one…

Four experiments focused on ways children could be trained to imitate others in imposing on themselves higher performance standards in game situations. The study also attempted to determine whether this internal achievement motivation behavior would be transferred by the children to situations such as learning in a classroom. The subjects were 122…

The present study evaluates the immediate effects of an experimentally manipulated social comparison on the subsequent behavior of lower socioeconomic status black children four to five and seven to eight years of age. The effects of four conditions of social comparison are measured with respect to the children's self-reinforcement,…

The primary purpose of the present research was to explore the relationship of ability and intrinsic motivation in the prediction of job performance. Intrinsic motivation was traced to two primary determinants. One, an organizational factor, is the extent to which an employee's job is "enriched," or incorporates challenging elements such as…

The first 2 of the 12 publications reviewed in this annotated bibliography use Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs to address problems, respectively, of teaching composition and of motivating students by teaching them how to set goals, formulate goal-achievement strategies, and successfully implement their plans. Subsequent reports suggest ways of…

Designed for both parents and teachers, the handbook presents methods for educating the moderately and severely retarded child. Those methods include measuring progress, rewarding and punishing, ways of using rewards and punishers, ways of giving positive reinforcers and punishers, withholding reinforcers (extinction), letting the child reward…