Children’s Evaluations of the Hypothetical Administration of Implicit Rewards in the Classroom
AbstractThe reactions that children had to the hypothetical administration of implicit rewards in the classroom were investigated by interviewing 84 elementary school children under two experimental conditions, direct contingent rewards (DCR) and implicit rewards (IR), plus four treatments within the latter condition. Results indicated that there were some differences between children’s responses to the hypothetical IR situation and previous responses to the actual IR situation. In particular, children considered that others would not be as distressed when they (the subjects) were treated unfairly as when the situation was reversed. Additionally, performance decrements present under the actual IR conditions were not predicted by the subjects in this study. Implications for classroom applications of operant procedures are discussed.