Although the principles governing the application of positive reinforcement to classroom situations remain clear and theoretically consistent, practical problems arise during application that are not easily anticipated. This paper focuses on one practical issue: the selection of appropriate reinforcers to use in inner city high schools. The paper…

The results of a group of studies, the objective of which was to clarify the conditions that account for the effectiveness of verbal approbation, are reported. Among the most significant findings were: (1) that the reinforcement properties of verbal approval are susceptible to distortion, misinterpretation or enhancement and must be applied in a…

The study attempted to modify the on-task and task completion rates of three kindergarten children by altering the contingencies of reinforcement associated with these two work behaviors. During baseline, a fixed number of tokens was provided for task completion. While the remainder of the class remained in this condition, teacher attention was…

Recognizing that punishment for aggression often is noneffective or inadvertently reinforces the aggressive act, the authors discuss an alternative approach and provide an explanation of the exchange theory of aggression. Three classroom experiments, operated with children chosen as the most severe behavior problems in a local school system, are…

A description of the Social Exchange Laboratory's work with autistic children is presented. The laboratory's philosophy of the exchange theory of autism, seen as a set of habitual response patterns maintained and intensified by exchanges which are inadvertantly structured by others in the child's environment, is set forth with characteristics,…

Study of 91 elementary school pupils indicates that in regular classroom situations spelling proficiency can be increased through the use of material and social reinforcement. (Author)

Examines the effects of frequency and contingency of reinforcement on the social deprivation-satiation phenomenon. Third- and fourth-grade children were given pretraining involving variations of reinforcement in the form of praise. In a subsequent discrimination test, correct responses were consistently praised. (Author/SS)

The goal of the investigation was to eliminate the disruptive, resistant and assaultive behaviors and increase the appropriate peer interaction of an economically disadvantaged kindergarten white boy. The treatment program involved presentation of adult (teacher) attention contingent upon desirable classroom behavior, withholding of attention…

The paper presents two experiments which test the "change in feelings of competence and self-determination" proposition of cognitive evaluation theory. This proposition states that when a person receives feedback about his performance on an intrinsically motivated activity this information will affect his sense of competence and…

Examines an experiment conducted on British secondary school pupils in which students were asked to respond to a "Praise and Rewards Attitude Questionnaire" (PRAQ). Results indicated that students favored teacher's praise more highly than praise from their peers. In addition, praise for academic achievement was preferred to praise for…

Two studies were conducted to clarify the role of different minimum performance standards for contingent tangible reinforcement or self-dispensed evaluative reinforcement (in the absence of tangible rewards) in determining the rate and accuracy of learning. Preschool children were presented with a discrimination learning task. Their performance…

The relative effectiveness of praise and group competition as motivating incentives affecting task persistence in young children was investigated. As predicted, competition was relatively more effective with 2nd graders than with kindergarten children, with boys than with girls, and with boring tasks than with more ego-involving tasks. However,…