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The Effects of Direct and Implicit Non-contingent Rewards on Children's Performance of a Fine Motor Skills Task

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Christopher F. Sharpley
Christopher F. Sharpley*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Monash University
*
Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton Vic 3168
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Abstract

The effects of non-contingent rewards administered both directly and implicitly for a fine motor skills task were investigated under a time-series design. Data were collected from all members of a typical class, with the teacher acting as experimenter to enhance generalizability. Results indicated that non-contingent rewards possessed neutral consequential effects, thus challenging data from some previous studies which have methodological limitations. The ineffectiveness of non-contingent rewards as reinforcers is discussed, with several suggestions made for future research to investigate the issue of previous reward history and its effect upon the non-contingent reward condition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , December 1987 , pp. 14 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1987

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