Children's Preference for Response cost or Positive Reinforcement as Working Conditions

In a four-way lever-pulling task, 80 boys and girls at two grade levels (first and third) and two percentage of win conditions were exposed to response cost or positive reinforcement to determine their effects upon response time and task preference. Pennies were either withdrawn or withheld from children in a game where the outcomes were contrived. Significant results favored positive reinforcement and high win ratio in producing shorter average times to complete a response. Ss exhibited a preference to continue the task under the positive reinforcement condition. No significant interactions occurred, so that results were constant across grade level and sex.