Effects of social reinforcement on learning and retention in children

Administered an easy or difficult 2-choice simultaneous discrimination task to 96 male and female 1st-2nd graders and 96 male and female 5th-6th graders. 3 reinforcement conditions (approval, disapproval, or silence) were varied by 2 female adult Es, each testing 24 Ss in each age-sex subgroup. Knowledge of results was provided independently after each response. Retention was measured after 8 days by a 3rd female E. Results suggest that disapproval affects both motivation and learning. Ss receiving criticism responded at slower rates, made more errors, and were less likely to reach criterion than Ss receiving praise or silence. Younger Ss, especially boys, were more affected by disapproval than were older Ss. The differential effects of approval and disapproval for younger and older Ss on rate of response were also found on the retention test. (16 ref.)