Money and Praise: Do They Improve Motor Learning and Performance?

Abstract

Abstract The hypothesis was tested that social and tangible reinforcements have no effect on the early practice trials of a qualitative motor task but facilitate performance after the skill is learned when compared with a nonreinforcement control group. Male undergraduate students (N = 108) practiced a rotary pursuit task to a performance criterion (learning phase) receiving one of three treatments: social reinforcement, tangible reinforcement, or nonreinforcement. After reaching the criterion, subjects were further subdivided into the same three treatments within each previous treatment, receiving an additional 20 practice trials (performance phase) Two experimenters tested one-half of the subjects in each treatment in both phases. Because of an apparent inequity in the distribution of initial ability among subjects, covariance analysis was used for data synthesis. Results indicated limited support for the hypothesis.