Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Verbal Incentives And Researcher Attitude In The Motivation Of Preschool Children From Different Socioeconomic Levels, Carol Hunter Byrnes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The motivating effects of positive and negative verbal reinforcement and researcher attitude on the performance of preschool children were studied in relation to socioeconomic level. Forty children from the Utah State University Child Development Laboratory and forty from Head Start classrooms in northern Utah served as subjects. Each child performed the simple task of placing pegs in a pegboard during a 60- second time interval; once under conditions of positive verbal reinforcement and positive attitude, and again, under one of four experimental conditions: control; positive reinforcement/positive attitude; negative reinforcement/positive attitude; or negative reinforcement/ negative attitude.

The findings seemed to indicate …