The effect of financial and food-based incentives on math test performance

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that incentives may be effective in increasing a student’s math performance. The purpose of this study was to extend previous research and give monetary and food incentives in the same period. Twenty-nine students with Algebra 2 experience took incentivized math tests with two different types of incentives: monetary and food. The financial incentive outperformed the control, but the food incentive did not. We also considered the relationship between the students’ math grades and the effectiveness of each incentive by correlating their math grades to the difference in scores between the control and incentive conditions. The relationship between participants' math scores and the incentive effect for food was positive and significant, but not significant for the effectiveness of the financial incentive. Therefore, teachers should consider using math incentives such as money to increase their students’ math test performance. We suggest more research is needed on the precise effectiveness of food as an incentive.