This paper examines the functions of challenging behavior in individuals with mental retardation, methods for determining the function of a particular behavior, strategies for implementing initial communicative functions that compete with challenging behavior, and procedures that specifically address attention-motivated and…

Examines rewards and costs to "natural helpers," service-providers separate from any established group. Survey of 19 rural helpers identifies lack of appreciation, time and energy loss, and emotional-spiritual fatigue as costs of helping. Suggests mental health professionals collaborate with helpers. Recommends ways of enlisting helpers'…

This study examined the effect of a salient multimodal reinforcer on object search performance of 9 children with Down's syndrome (24-56 months old). Attentional deficits of children with mental retardation or at risk for delay influenced their performance. Contingency learning of children with Down's syndrome may be affected by the attentional…

The orbitofrontal cortex contains the secondary taste cortex, in which the reward value of taste is represented. It also contains the secondary and tertiary olfactory cortical areas, in which information about the identity and also about the reward value of odours is represented. The orbitofrontal cortex also receives information about the sight…

The argument of the paper proposes that learning grows out of motivation which depends upon recognising and valuing the distinctive qualities of each and the cultural traditions they embody. If learning expresses a journey between worlds, the challenge for the school is to create a learning community that brings together local and cosmopolitan in…

A framework is suggested for the cross-cultural study of motivation that stresses the importance of contextual conditions in eliciting achievement motivation and emphasizes cultural relativity in the definition of the concept. (EH)

Of approximately 1400 participants in a job program for older workers, 200 were randomly sampled to investigate the following: (1) Does work have substantial meanings other than economic for this population? (2) What are these meanings and their relative importance in keeping the worker in the labor force? (3) Is there a relationship between the…

THIS PAPER FOCUSES ON MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS UNDERLYING RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT. CURRENT ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE LOW ACADEMIC MOTIVATION OF NEGRO CHILDREN, INCLUDING VARIOUS DEFICITS ASSOCIATED WITH CULTURAL DEPRIVATION, THE DISCONTINUITY OF HOME AND SCHOOL COMPETENCY TRAINING, AND THE FAILURE OF PREDOMINANTLY NEGRO SCHOOLS TO…

The report describes the procedures followed in identifying and analyzing social incentives which might be used in Air Force technical training. Questionnaire techniques were used to scale a list of 62 potential incentives for attractiveness, feasibility, and other characteristics. Personal motives, background variables, and ambiguous surface…

Contained is a review of the research done on the use of verbal rewards in the classroom. Some verbal rewards are tasks rewards, other rewards are more personal; and still other verbal rewards are impersonal. Verbal rewards, therefore, have both intellectual and emotional implications. Research literature indicates that "verbal reward"…

Comparative motivational studies of middle class and lower class children show that different economic and ethnic groups vary in their reward-punishment systems. Teachers should have a systematic theory of the working of reward and punishment in learning. Their theory should include the concept of a hierarchy of reward levels, and they should…

This study tests the contention that a reinforcing agent's manner of administering rewards and punishments is construed by his associates as revealing his margin of freedom, and that associates are more attentive to cues concerning a reinforcing agent's dispositional qualities, and more inclined to ingratiate themselves to him, when he employes…

This training manual is designed to instruct work supervisors and skills trainers of the hard-to-employ disadvantaged in the effective utilization of behavioral reinforcement principles for overcoming difficult, frequently encountered training problems. One of its primary focuses is how to train for job-required behavioral skills such as…