The Effects of Direct and Implicit Non-contingent Rewards on Children's Performance of a Fine Motor Skills Task

Abstract

The effects of non-contingent rewards administered both directly and implicitly for a fine motor skills task were investigated under a time-series design. Data were collected from all members of a typical class, with the teacher acting as experimenter to enhance generalizability. Results indicated that non-contingent rewards possessed neutral consequential effects, thus challenging data from some previous studies which have methodological limitations. The ineffectiveness of non-contingent rewards as reinforcers is discussed, with several suggestions made for future research to investigate the issue of previous reward history and its effect upon the non-contingent reward condition.