Open AccessTHE EFFECTS OF AGE, SEX, AND SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS ON RESPONSIVENESS TO TWO CLASSES OF VERBAL REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
Rosenhan David,
Greenwald Jean A.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
ets research bulletin series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2333-8504
pISSN - 0424-6144
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.1964.tb00963.x
Subject(s) - psychology , reinforcement , developmental psychology , conceptualization , socioeconomic status , class (philosophy) , social psychology , population , demography , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science
The effects of two classes of verbal reinforcers, one more abstract (performance reinforcers) and the other less abstract (person), were examined among lower‐ and middle‐class children. Previous work that had shown lower‐class children to be relatively unresponsive to abstract reinforcers was not substantiated. The experiment suggested serious deficiencies in the experimental methodology (and hence in conceptualization) for examining the psychological properties of lower‐class children. A second experiment examined the developmental implications of responsiveness to person and performance reinforcers. The results suggested that, in growing older, children become more sensitive to a broader band of reinforcers and particularly to abstract reinforcers, without declining in their responsiveness to concrete ones.