Treatment of 35 children (between 1 and 5 years of age) with sleep disorders was focused on helping the child stay in bed quietly if awake and to settle into sleep without parental attention. Improvement occurred in 77 percent. Results illustrate effects of treatment sample selection and indicate dangers of generalizing findings. (Author/RH)

The recalcitrant spitting of a blind, deaf, and retarded adolescent was eliminated with a behavioral intervention consisting of positive reinforcement for not spitting and facial screening for spitting. The social and academic implications of modifying such behaviors are discussed. (Author/CMG)

When positive reinforcement was presented via teacher verbalizations in a noncontingent fixed-time schedule, two autistic children (six and nine years old) increased their percentage of correct responding on difficult and easy tasks. (Author/CL)

Policymakers and educators are taking a new look at incentives as they work to improve accountability systems. This ERIC Digest examines the role of rewards and sanctions in school reform and identifies key issues in implementing incentive systems. The new accountability is based on five components: carefully designed standards, assessments…

This research was concerned with an externally supplied motivational approach to reducing the attrition rate in correspondence study courses at the University of Iowa. (Authors)

Initial experiment demonstrated operant acquisition of an instrumental hand-pulling response in 4-8-month-old infants; the effect achieved with contingent, noncontingent, delayed reinforcement, and the suppression, recovery, and facilitation effects of noncontingent stimulation are discussed. (Author)

On a simple motor task the performance of 32 4-year-old children of each sex increased under both adult praise and adult presence with the effects being additive. (WY)

The author examines the two sets of conditions associated with human motivation: internal conditions and the outer demands. These demands are then discussed according to interrelationships among them along with some notions about how motives change. (Author)

Using free time as a consequence was effective in maintaining accuracy while increasing the percentage of arithmetic assignments completed by an underachieving seven-year-old. Follow-up data revealed that the improvements were maintained even though no programmed consequences were in effect. (Author/CL)

The author explores some of the possibilities and problems involved in teaching musical composition, describes three approaches to songwriting, and offers suggestions for ways teachers can reinforce efforts of student songwriters. (KC)

An 11 year old learning disabled boy was taught two different strategies, both of which markedly improved his handwriting performance on a paragraph copying task. Results for the study indicated that allowing the student his choice of strategies produced better performance than did teacher determined choices. (Author)

The hypothesis that older adults do not perform well on laboratory learning tasks because they are reluctant to demonstrate what they have learned by responding when uncertain received only partial support. (Author)