Effects of motivating instructions on reaction time in grade school children.

Abstract

There is a striking paucity of data concerning the main and interactive effects of motivational factors on reaction time (RT) in both children and adults. The most widely cited study of this type is one by Johanson (5), who found, with three adult Ss, that simple RT was accelerated by punishing Ss with electric shock for relatively slow reactions or by simply furnishing knowledge of results after each trial. Rosenbaum (6), studying choice RT, found that threat of strong shock for slow reactions led to an improvement in the performance of college students. Threat of weak shock was not significantly effective. However, Farber and Spence (4), also working with college students, found no significant relations between threat of strong shock and movement time required for simple and choice reactions. These authors suggest that the effects of stress may interact with other variables which are as yet unknown. In a recent study, Blackburn (2) has investigated the effects of three kinds of motivating instructions (standard, urging, relaxing) on choice RT in nonpsychotic patients with supratentorial cerebral disease and a comparable group of patients with diverse neurological and medical complaints but with no cerebral disease. Initially, 30 visual choice RT trials were administered to each S under standard conditions. This was followed by differential instructions and by 30 postinstructional trials identical with the