Social Reinforcement as a Function of Test Anxiety and Success-Failure Experiences

64 7-year-old children of each sex and at low and high levels of anxiety as measured by the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (N = 256) were divided equally into 4 experimental groups according to the type of pretraining (success or failure) and reinforcement condition (social reinforcement or nonrein...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 1967-09, Vol.38 (3), p.723-737
Main Author: Hill, Kennedy T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Achievement
Adult
Adults
Anxiety
Child
Child psychology
Children
Female
Humans
Male
Mothers
Motivation
Problem Solving
Psychological reinforcement
Psychological Tests
Puzzles
Reaction Time
Reinforcement, Verbal
Sex
Social interaction
Social reinforcement
Test anxiety
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Summary:64 7-year-old children of each sex and at low and high levels of anxiety as measured by the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (N = 256) were divided equally into 4 experimental groups according to the type of pretraining (success or failure) and reinforcement condition (social reinforcement or nonreinforcement) in a subsequent marble-sorting task. Performance was higher under social reinforcement and lower under nonreinforcement for low-anxious Ss after success and high-anxious Ss after failure, but similar under the two reinforcement conditions and at an intermediate level for low-anxious Ss after failure and high-anxious Ss after success (p < .01). These results suggested a revision in the incentive-anxiety reduction position previously stated to account for the effects of social reinforcement from adults on children's performance at simple tasks.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1967.tb04593.x