Eighty-four nine year old children, twelve in each of seven experimental groups, learned a two-choice successive discrimination problem. The parameters that were systematically manipulated included: (1) immediate versus delayed reinforcement; and (2) forced preresponse stimulus exposure versus stimulus exposure during the delay interval,…

This study indicates that a period of positive prior contact between a child subject and an adult experimenter may result in a relative decrease in performance for material reward dispensed by that adult experimenter. (Authors)

Although children given tangible reward performed better than children given intangible reward, neither type of reward had an effect that was significantly different from the level attained by a control group which received no explicit reward at all. (Authors)

Two experiments were designed to detect frustration phenomena hitherto only observed in subhuman animals, frustration being defined as the omission of the response item after a correct anticipation in a partial reinforcement schedule. (Authors)

The hypothesis that success influences task preferences was tested. Results supported the hypothesis: the probability of change in task preference was greatest under high success reinforcement ratio conditions. (Author)

AN EXTENSIVE REVIEW OF THE RELEVANT LITERATURE SINCE 1900 SEEMS TO INDICATE THAT, IN SOME WAY, THERE IS AN INTERACTION BETWEEN INTELLIGENCE, AGE, SOCIAL GROUP, AND THE EFFECTS OF PRAISE AND BLAME ON SCHOOL CHILDREN. INCONSISTENCIES IN EXPERIMENTAL FACTORS HAVE PRECLUDED ANY DEFINITIVE STATEMENTS REGARDING THE PROBLEM. AN INVESTIGATION OF THE…

The study investigates the relative efficacy of self-monitored and externally imposed reinforcement in intrinsically motivated and extrinsically motivated children, grades two through five. Results show the importance of individual differences in children's dispositions to respond to incentive conditions. (JH)

It has been observed that following a brief period of isolation, children tend to show a greater increase in responsiveness on a simple motor task than nonisolated children do when verbal reinforcement is given periodically during a task. One explanation is that the social deprivation of the brief isolation heightens the motivation to receive…

To merge the reinforcement and competition approaches and to test the relative efficacy of reward structures, group vs individual rewarding was paired with three amounts of monetary reward for performance. The math performance of college females was consistent with the differential rewarding hypotheses, whereas males were consistent with a…