A community program to reward children's use of seat belts

This paper reports on a community-wide effort to increase elementary school children's use of seat belts. Twenty-five schools serving over 9,000 children participated in a program of rewards (stickers, bumper strips, and chances on pizza dinners) administered by parent-teacher organization volunteers. Comprehensive observations were made at three representative schools. Categorization of compliance with safety rules required all passengers to be buckled into safety devices before the children received the rewards. The rewards, on average across schools, increased compliance from baseline of 18.1% to 62.4% during the interventions. Withdrawal of the rewards resulted in a decrease to 49% compliance, but this rate remained above baseline. The involvement of community groups and institutions in this safety program is highlighted.     

Effects of modeling and expectancy of reward on cheating behavior

The present experiment compared the effects of modeling honest and dishonest responses with the effects of expectancy of reward. Sixty preschool children viewed one of three modeling films prior to their playing a pegboard game: (a) dishonest model receiving positive reinforcement, (b) dishonest model receiving no reinforcement, and (c) honest model receiving positive reinforcement.Ss were also told that a reward was dependent on a high level of performance or that a reward was noncontingent on performance with a bonus reward contingent on performance. An overwhelming majority of children in all groups imitated the model they observed with no significant effect due to expectancy of reward.Grateful appreciation is expressed to Dr. Kennedy T. Hill for his helpful comments as a second reader. The authors would also like to thank those who served as observers, models, or experimenters; they included Ellen Cosgrove, Lee June, Judy Kramer, Paul Meranto. Robert McGrath, Loren Rappaport, and William Smith. Finally the children, parents, and staff of the Children's Research Center Preschool, University of Illinois, are to be thanked for their cooperation. The preschool is supported by a training grant in child psychology. HD 00244, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.     

Ares and Babbitt in the classroom: effects of competition and reward on children's aggression.

In many competitive situations, aggression is one of several instrumental behaviors that can produce reinforcing consequences. Despite the fact that aggression precipitated by competition for valued resources is an increasingly important social problem, there is little evidence of a causal relationship. In a factorial experiment, dyads of 64 kindergarten and first-grade males played a game in a face-to-face setting that yielded a prize for the winner only. It was predicted that high levels of competition and high levels of reward magnitude would produce more aggressive behavior than lower levels of these variables. Additionally, children rated by their teachers as high in dispositional aggressiveness were anticipated to behave most aggressively in the game. Each of these predictions was confirmed on three different measures of aggression: verbal, interference, and physical. Furthermore, the data suggested that constructive action was sometimes abandoned in attempts to harm an opponent. Since competition for desirable objects is a social reality, it was concluded that conditions inhibiting aggression in these situations should be investigated.     

Peers increase adolescent risk taking by enhancing activity in the brain's reward circuitry

The presence of peers increases risk taking among adolescents but not adults. We posited that the presence of peers may promote adolescent risk taking by sensitizing brain regions associated with the anticipation of potential rewards. Using fMRI, we measured brain activity in adolescents, young adults, and adults as they made decisions in a simulated driving task. Participants completed one task block while alone, and one block while their performance was observed by peers in an adjacent room. During peer observation blocks, adolescents selectively demonstrated greater activation in reward-related brain regions, including the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex, and activity in these regions predicted subsequent risk taking. Brain areas associated with cognitive control were less strongly recruited by adolescents than adults, but activity in the cognitive control system did not vary with social context. Results suggest that the presence of peers increases adolescent risk taking by heightening sensitivity to the potential reward value of risky decisions.     

Examining the generality of children's preference for contingent reinforcement via extension to different responses, reinforcers, and schedules

Studies that have assessed whether children prefer contingent reinforcement (CR) or noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) have shown that they prefer CR. Preference for CR has, however, been evaluated only under continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedules. The prevalence of intermittent reinforcement (INT) warrants an evaluation of whether preference for CR persists as the schedule of reinforcement is thinned. In the current study, we evaluated 2 children's preference for contingent versus noncontingent delivery of highly preferred edible items for academic task completion under CRF and INT schedules. Children (a) preferred CR to NCR under the CRF schedule, (b) continued to prefer CR as the schedule of reinforcement became intermittent, and (c) exhibited a shift in preference from CR to NCR as the schedule became increasingly thin. These findings extend the generality of and provide one set of limits to the preference for CR. Applied implications, variables controlling preferences, and future research are discussed.     

Microgenetic patterns of children's multiplication learning: confirming the overlapping waves model by latent growth modeling

Variability in strategy selection is an important characteristic of learning new skills such as mathematical skills. Strategies gradually come and go during this development. In 1996, Siegler described this phenomenon as "overlapping waves." In the current microgenetic study, we attempted to model these overlapping waves statistically. In addition, we investigated whether development in strategy selection is related to development in accuracy and to what degree working memory is related to both. We expected that children with poor working memory are limited in their possibilities to make the associations that are necessary to progress to more mature strategies. This limitation would explain the often-found relationship between working memory and mathematical abilities. To this aim, the strategy selection and accuracy of 98 children who were learning single-digit multiplication was assessed eight times on a weekly basis. Using latent growth modeling for categorical data, we confirmed Siegler's hypothesis of overlapping waves. Moreover, both the intercepts and the slopes of strategy selection and accuracy were strongly interrelated. Finally, working memory predicted both strategy selection and accuracy, confirming that working memory is related to mathematical problem solving in two ways because it influences both the maturity of strategy choice and the probability of making procedural mistakes.     

Preschool children's accumulated and sustained physical activity

39 3- to 5-year-old children wore heart-rate monitors for 12 hr. on three consecutive days to examine physical activity patterns. Parent logs supplied additional information on type and location of activity. The highest number of accumulated minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity was recorded during the weekday (38.6 min.) and weekend (31.4 min.) afternoons, a time period when more activity occurred outdoors. Sustained activity was mostly short in duration, but many children (71%) accumulated recommended amounts of activity on the weekday, fewer (46%) on the weekend. Spearman rank correlations for weekday (r=.50, p=.004) and weekend (r=.58, p=.004) activity were significant. Considering health risk factors associated with physical inactivity, early educators must look to the essence of young children's physical activity patterns in designing programs. Large motor activity that is intense and that occurs outdoors is a good place to start.     

A study of the contribution of hippocampal-accumbens-subpallidal projections to locomotor activity

Locomotor activity recorded in an automated open-field apparatus was increased substantially by unilateral injections of carbachol, a cholinergic agonist, into the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Hyperactivity elicited in this way was reduced significantly when glutamate antagonists were injected into the ipsilateral nucleus accumbens. Injecting gamma-aminobutyric acid into the ipsilateral subpallidal region also reduced the hyperactivity from injections of carbachol into the dentate gyrus. When these compounds were injected into the contralateral accumbens and subpallidal region, respectively, there was little or no reduction in the carbachol-elicited locomotor activity. These observations suggest that neural pathways fom hippocampus to accumbens to subpallidal region may contribute to locomotor activity.     

Different ways to get the job done: comparing the effects of intellectual stimulation and contingent reward leadership on task‐related outcomes

Two experiments were conducted to compare the effects of intellectual stimulation and contingent reward leadership on performance, task enjoyment, and extra effort. Participants (N = 78 and N = 158) viewed one of three videos and performed an in‐basket exercise. Several interesting differences emerged. Across both studies, participants in the control and contingent reward leadership conditions generated more ideas than their counterparts in the intellectual stimulation condition. Additionally, participants reported more willingness to exert extra effort when the leader was either intellectually stimulating or emphasized contingent reward leadership, as compared to the control condition. Finally, while task enjoyment was higher in the contingent reward leadership condition than in the control condition in Study 1, no significant differences emerged among conditions for enjoyment in Study 2.