Understanding how learning changes during human development has been one of the long-standing objectives of developmental science. Recently, advances in computational biology have demonstrated that humans display a bias when learning to navigate novel environments through rewards and punishments: they learn more from outcomes that confirm their…

Optimal integration of positive and negative outcomes during learning varies depending on an environment's reward statistics. The present study investigated the extent to which children, adolescents, and adults (N = 142 8-25 year-olds, 55% female, 42% White, 31% Asian, 17% mixed race, and 8% Black; data collected in 2021) adapt their weighting of…

Developmental neuroscience models suggest that changes in responsiveness to incentives contribute to increases in adolescent risk behavior, including substance use. Trajectories of sensitivity to reward (SR) and sensitivity to punishment (SP) were examined and tested as predictors of escalation of early substance use in a community sample of…

The study examined the contribution of reinforcement sensitivity to childhood personality at three levels of the hierarchical structure, mid-level traits, the Big Five and two higher-order factors, and the moderating role of sex and age in a sample of 3-18-year-olds. The canonical correlation analyses indicated that reinforcement sensitivity and…

The high-school problem is nothing new. In one of his early writings, James S. Coleman, the brilliant sociologist who later wrote the famous report on the equality of opportunity for education (the "Coleman Report") and the first study of public and private schools, identified the essential high-school problem: "our adolescents today are cut off,…

Delay in receiving a reward was studied in 6 to 9-year-old children. Results indicated that the older children, in contrast to the younger children, chose a delayed reward over immediate reward, whether or not they saw the reward before choosing. (ST)

One hundred and eight kindergarten and elementary school children, 36 at each of three age levels (5, 7, and 9 years) participated in the experiment. All children were presented a three-part successive discrimination task; original learning, presentation of incidental stimuli, and a test of recongition and recall of the incidental material.…

Reports a series of three exploratory studies. (WY)

Indicates that approval and disapproval affect the subject's motivational level (assessed by rate of responding) rather than his learning (assessed by acquisition measures). This study is based on a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Denver. (MH)

A study of children's incentive preferences revealed reliable age and sex differences, and significant discrepancies with adults' estimates of what children like. Implications for research with children are discussed. (DP)

Effects of instruction and reward contingency on conformity to a prohibition were studied in preschoolers. Instructions were varied in terms of explicitness and reward was either contingent or not contingent upon following the instructions. (Author/SS)

Examines the relationship between probability learning and aging by studying the performance of 48 young and 48 old adults in a probability learning task which used different reinforcement procedures and material rewards. (CM)

Reports a study of 540 first-, fourth-, and eighth-grade students who participated in a discrimination task under three reinforcement conditions: reward, punishment and a combination of both. Results indicate the superiority of learning under punishment conditions. Interactions involving the sex of subject and experimenter are also discussed.…

This study retrospectively examined physical activity patterns across three specific age periods (childhood, teenage, and young adulthood) in a cross sectional sample of young Caucasian undergraduate women (N = 44). All women (mean age = 22.27 plus or minus 3.14 years) completed questionnaire packets assessing transtheoretical model of behavior…