SOCIAL REINFORCEMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN PROGRAMED LEARNING IN ITALY.
Abstract
The study attempted to assess the effects of social reinforcement on performance in a programed learning task. The four experimental conditions that determined the treatment groups were: positive, negative, positive and negative, and no social reinforcement (evaluating feedback). Informational feedback in the branching program used in the experiment was identical for all groups. One hundred and eight male high school students were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups. Results indicate that negative evaluative feedback produced the larger variance in achievement. Performance level is higher when negative reinforcement is given than when it is not given. Positive evaluative feedback reinforcement did not affect performance. The number of significant correlations between achievement, on the one hand, and verbal and abstract reasoning aptitudes and 16 PF intelligence factor on the other hand, tends to decrease with increasing social reinforcement conditions. Social reinforcement attenuates the usual correlation between intelligence and achievement test performance following programed learning.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0623025
Entities
People
- Domenico Parisi
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign