Effectiveness of Social and Correctness Reinforcers with Different Aged Children

Abstract
The effectiveness of two classes of verbal reinforcers, correctness and social, were examined among 108 second-, fifth-, and eighth-grade, middle-class children using a marble-sorting task. Results indicated that correctness reinforcement was more rewarding across all levels of age than social approval; however, a post hoc analysis of the age by treatment effect indicated a significant reinforcer effect for only the eighth-grade Ss.