The effects of material and nonmaterial reinforcement on the perseverance behavior of Indian children
Date
1969
Authors
Butterworth, Paul
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Abstract
This study investigated the effectiveness of material (candy) and nonmaterial (verbal praise) reinforcement in increasing the perseverance behavior of sixty Indian children, age six to eight years, on an object sorting task. The children were divided into two groups according to the degree to which their parent, participated in school activities in order to examine the effect that parental participation baa on the level of perseverance behavior brought to a task by the Indian child. The effectiveness of the reinforcement was based on the length of time the S persevered at the criterion task without reinforcement. Indian children persevered for significantly longer periods of time following material reinforcement than following no reinforcement. Indian children in the low parental participation group (P₂) persevered at the criterion task for a significantly longer period of time following practice sessions in which they received material reinforcement than following practice sessions in which they received nonmaterial reinforcement. There was no significant difference 1n the perseverance scores for the material and nonmaterial reinforcement conditions for Indian children in the high parental participation group. Other differences were non-significant.