Decrements in Intrinsic Motivation among Rewarded and Observer Subjects

MORGAN, MARK. Decrements in Intrinsic Motivation among Rewarded and Observer Subjects. CHILD DEVELOPMENTr, 1983, 54, 636-644. 2 studies examined the extent to which overjustification effects can be explained in terms of expectations deriving from the offer of a reward by the experimenter. This issue was tested by including a condition in which subjects merely observed another child perform an activity for a promised reward. The results of Experiment 1 showed that while such observer subjects manifested a short-term decrement that was not significantly different from the involved reward group, in the long term the decrement did not persist. A suggestion emerged that the recovery of the observed group was due to their trying out the activity, and this suggestion was verified in Experiment 2. While the central hypothesis has therefore to be rejected, an interesting new phenomenon has been uncovered with important applied implications.