1979/12/01 by Vonnie C. McLoyd · 2 citations
Decision Sciences · Psychology · Mathematics · #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Behavioral and Psychological Studies #Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
paper · doi:10.2307/1129327
McLoYD, VONNIE C. The Effects of Extrinsic Rewards of Differential Value on High and Low Intrinsic Interest. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 1010-1019. This study examined the effects of a high-value versus low-value reward on intrinsic interest in reading a high-interest versus low-interest storybook in 54 secondand third-grade children. Both reward value and storybook interest were inferred on the basis of individual choices made by each child. Children in the high-interest group received their first-choice storybook to read, while children in the lowinterest group received their last-choice storybook. In each of these interest groups, children received either their first-choice reward for reading a portion of the storybook (high value), their last-choice reward (low value), or no reward. Results indicated that, during a 10-min free-choice period, children in the high-interest group spent significantly more time with and read more words from the respective storybook than children in the low-interest group, except those who received a high-value reward. Of children in the high-interest group, those in the no-reward condition spent significantly more time with and read more words from the storybook than children in both the highand low-value reward conditions, which did not differ significantly from each other. In contrast, of children in the low-interest group, those in the high-value reward condition spent significantly more time with and read more words from the storybook than children in both the low-value and no-reward conditions, which did not differ significantly from each other.