Variable effectiveness of two classes of reinforcers in relation to mental age, chronological age and social class

The purpose of this study was to investigate motivational processes believed to underlie school-achievement differences between school children from different socio-economic classes (SEC). It was proposed that children can be viewed in terms of the types of rewards or reinforcers that they seek, and that this constitutes a meaningful dimension along which lower and higher SEC children can be differentiated at a basic level. The essential difference proposed was that lower SEC children for the most part operate under the terms of a developmentally earlier motivational system, not the optimal system for meeting the typical demands of early schooling. This study attempted to establish the operation of hierarchical systems of motivation as a basis for explaining SEC related school performance differences. To test the theoretical proposals, experimental reinforcer conditions (social and material) and a control condition were established, designed to permit differential responsiveness to the various classes of reinforcers based on SEC, chronological age, and mental age of subjects. 80 second and fourth grade subjects from two SEC groups (Lower and middle) were promised one or the other explicit reinforcers contingent on their performance on a school-like task (an adaptation of the Coding Subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) 40 different subjects from both SEC groups were used as controls and promised no explicit reinforcement for their performance. Two objectively different levels of task complexity were employed. Results showed significant performance differences under all conditions based on SEC, chronological age, and level of task complexity, but failed to demonstrate significant differential responsiveness to experimental classes of reinforcers based on SEC membership, chronological age, or mental age. In general the results offered little direct support for the view that school performance differences between SEC groups are related to hierarchical systems of motivation. It was concluded that the experimental reinforcer conditions were not adequately designed to elicit differential responses based on differences in motivational systems. Consistent performance differences between SEC groups under the control condition suggested that a better conceptualized nonmaterial reinforcer condition, closer in nature to the control condition, might have been more successful in demonstrating differences in motivational systems.