Developmental Differences in Reinforcer Preference Value and in Learning-Set Performance under Inconsistent Reward

3 experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between developmental differences in reinforcer preference value and in learning-set performance. A second purpose was to investigate ontogenetic differences in the effects of experience with continuous but qualitatively inconsistent reward. W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChild development Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 375 - 379
Main Authors Haaf, Robert A., Smith, Joel A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago, etc University of Chicago Press 01.06.1976
University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc
Subjects
Child psychology
Children
Discrimination learning
Experimentation
Grade levels
Kindergarten education
Learning
Learning motivation
Legal objections
Psychological reinforcement
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Summary:3 experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between developmental differences in reinforcer preference value and in learning-set performance. A second purpose was to investigate ontogenetic differences in the effects of experience with continuous but qualitatively inconsistent reward. When the same reward objects were used for kindergartners and fourth graders, with the consequence that preference value of the rewards increased between grade levels, developmental improvement in performance was observed. However, when rewards were equated in preference value between grade levels, no developmental differences in performance were found. Results also suggested that inconsistent reward leads to greater improvement across learning-set problems than does consistent reward.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.2307/1128791