Research regarding the establishment of learned reinforcement with mildly retarded children is reviewed. Noted are findings which indicate that educable retarded students, possibly due to cultural differences, are less responsive to social rewards than either nonretarded or more severely retarded children. Characteristics of primary and secondary…

Isolation of optimal instructional processes to provide information feedback and to motivate disadvantaged children was the goal of this comparative study of reinforcement contigencies. The subjects were 21 black children from 45 to 65 months of age. Children were ranked on the PPVT and a learning program pretest, then randomly assigned to three…

It was the purpose of this study to ascertain whether the culturally disadvantaged child, who appeared to adhere to the principle of immediate gratification, had learned, as a function of his participation in Head Start, a more future-related orientation when compared to his non-Head Start counterparts. One hundred and eighty-seven 4- and…

This paper gives the results of a study of two measures of delay gratification: age and socio-economic status (SES) in young children. The subjects included 180 four-, five-, and six-year old children. Sixty children at each age level were selected, twenty children within each level of high, 20 of middle, and 20 of low SES. Delay choice scores…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of three different types of reinforcement strategies on spelling achievement among a sample of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged fourth grade public school pupils. The three reinforcement strategies employed involved a concrete reward (candy), a token or symbolic reward…

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…

The study attempted to improve verbal language acquisition for two nonverbal four- and five-year-old autistic children by incorporating natural language interactions and motivational techniques. Broadly generalized treatment gains resulted from use of functional and varied stimuli, natural reinforcers, reinforcement of communicative attempts, and…

This study tested Rotter's hypothesis that internals would show more achievement-striving behaviors than externals using a direct measure of such behavior. (Editor)

The purpose of this article is to offer a design for a project conducted by the school counselor that incorporates principles of behavior modification in dealing with classroom misbehavior in a traditional public junior high school setting. (Author)

A discussion of motivational systems, contingency management, and behavior theories that have been employed in some performance contracts. (RY)

Reinforcement conditions of approval, disapproval, or silence were used during a discrimination task assigned to 96 boys and 96 girls. Children receiving criticism responded at slower rates and made more errors than children receiving praise or silence. Retention was measured after 8 days. Results suggest that disapproval negatively affects both…

Results indicated that a combination of primary and conditional reinforcers was most effective in developing a verbal conditioned reinforcer which effectively functioned as a self-reinforcer to facilitate new learning for 80 second grade Ss. (Author/WY)