Recency and summation effects of nonreward in children

This study was designed to investigate the effects of recency and summation of frustrative nonreward on children's performance. Kindergarten children performed a lever-pulling task on a three-lever apparatus. Session I consisted of 100% reinforcement; sessions II and III consisted of three partial reinforcement patterns presented in random order.Analysis of latency at the third lever confirmed the recency hypothesis; i.e., when a single nonreward was administered in two different patterns a greater FE occured after the more immediate nonreward than after a nonreward that was separated from the time of measurement by a rewarded response. The analyses for latency also supported the notion of the summation properties of nonreward since two successive nonrewards yielded a greater FE than a single nonreward. Analysis of movement time showed no evidence of recency and suggestive support for summation effect. Discussion focused on the concept of reward expectancy in studies of the FE in children.