The effect of extrinsic constraints on children's creativity while using a computer

Abstract:

Two studies were conducted to examine the impact of extrinsic constraints on children's performance while using a computer. Open‐ended tasks were presented and possible differential effects of rewards and evaluations imposed by human (experimenter) and non‐human (computer) sources were explored in relation to product creativity, motivation, and affective response. Both studies provide support for the hypothesis that reward and evaluation will undermine creativity and motivation, even when a computer serves as the source of these constraints. In addition, a developmental trend emerged with older children being far more adversely affected than their younger counterparts. The theoretical and applied significance of these results are discussed.     

Visual feature integration in learning disabled children

This study examined the ability of 7 learning disabled children to detect and integrate visual features in a complex display. While the learning disabled children performed more poorly over-all than 6 control children, differences between the two groups were most pronounced when subjects were required to conjoin or integrate visual features to make a decision about the presence of a target item. This finding is discussed with reference to automatic and attention-demanding components of visual perception.     

The role of sub-lexical orthography in naming: a performance and acoustic analysis.

Two experiments examined whether the duration of naming is sensitive to variables that influence pre-production processes. In Experiment 1 word naming produced longer durations than picture naming. Experiment 2 replicated this effect for low frequency items, but not for high frequency items. The results indicate that naming duration increases when conditions are likely to involve sub-lexical orthographic to phonological translation. The results are inconsistent with the proposition that input and output involve discrete or distinct information processing stages in naming where the whole response is planned in advance of response initiation. Rather, it is claimed that sub-lexical information about a printed word's pronunciation can be used to initiate a naming response before the whole response is fully prepared. The implications for models of word naming and the role of suprasegmental factors in naming are discussed.     

Gender differences in distributive justice: The role of self-presentation revisited

Kidder, Bellettirie, and Cohn's [(1977) Secret Ambitions and Public Performances: The Effects of Anonymity on Reward Allocations Made by Men and Women, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 13, pp. 70–80] self-presentational account of gender differences in distributive justice was examined. Men and women attending two, primarily white, northeastern universities distributed a jointly earned reward between themselves and a hypothetical co-worker who was either a stranger or a friend and whose inferior task performance resulted from either low ability or low effort. Subjects made their allocations under both public and private conditions. Men allocated more equitably (i.e., according to co-worker input) in public than women did, whereas women allocated more equitably in private than men did, only when working with strangers who exerted low effort. In addition, among female subjects, private allocations to low-effort strangers were more equitable than public allocations. Among male subjects, however, public allocations to low-effort strangers were more equitable than private allocations. The conditions under which men make equitable allocations and women make equal allocations, and possible reasons for these differences, are discussed.This research was presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, April 11–14, 1991, New York, NY. We are grateful to Brenda Major, Victor Benassi, Rebecca Warner, members of the University of New Hampshire Social Psychology Research Group, and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Using integrated theory to explain the movement into juvenile delinquency

Research grounded in labeling, differential association, social learning, and social control theory provides useful information about various phases of the delinquency process. However, none of these theories accounts for the entire delinquency process. Recent work has demonstrated, for example, that social control theory may be more suitable for explaining initial delinquency, whereas labeling theory is more useful in explaining continued delinquency. This paper incorporates theoretical elements of labeling, differential association, social learning, and social control theories into a model that explains both initial and continued delinquency. Analysis of data from three waves of the National Youth Survey provides support for the model and shows that weakened social controls increase opportunities for associating with delinquent peers, learning delinquent behaviors, and committing initial delinquent acts. Initial delinquency increases the likelihood of being observed and negatively labeled by parents. These labels in turn increase the likelihood of future delinquency. These results lend support to arguments for integrated theory in the study of juvenile delinquency.     

Microcomputer Applications: Microcomputer Applications: Accelerating the Salesperson Learning Curve

Marketing researchers, in general, have increased their usage of multi-item scaled measures dramatically in the past decade. This article relates a project that categorized and summarized the uses of these measures during the 1980's. It describes first some general findings vis-a-vis all areas of marketing research and then gives some highlights of sales related measures in specific. Finally, based on our observations during the course of the project we make some basic recommendations for the improvement of scale-measurement and reporting.     

Immunizing children against the negative effects of reward: A further examination of intrinsic motivation training techniques

An investigation was conducted to extend previous research on the effect of intrinsic motivation focus sessions on children's subsequent motivational orientation and creativity in an expected‐reward situation. Numerous earlier studies have demonstrated the over justification effect: Initially interested in an activity, an individual who is led to engage in that activity in the presence of some salient extrinsic constraint will judge him‐ or herself to be motivated by the constraint and not by his own interest. This phenomenon has been demonstrated across the life span. Even very young children who work on an interesting task in order to obtain a reward evidence lower subsequent intrinsic motivation than do children not working for a reward. Other research has shown similar negative effects on creativity. However, two recent investigations indicated that the usual over justification effect need not always occur. These studies demonstrated that the undermining of school children's intrinsic motivation and creativity may be counteracted by means of videotaped modeling and directed discussion sessions that explicitly (a) deal with ways to cognitively distance oneself from reward contingencies and (b) focus on intrinsic reasons for working in school. The present study incorporates important refinements of these earlier immunization attempts and provides particularly strong evidence for the hypothesis that children participating in sessions designed to focus on intrinsic reasons for doing things in school will later treat reward as an actual augmentation of intrinsic motivation. Theoretical and practical implications of this phenomenon are discussed.