The Effect of Performance-Relevant and Performance-Irrelevant Rewards on Children's Intrinsic Motivation

KARNIOL, RACHEL, and Ross, MICHAEL. The Effect of Performance-Relevant and PerformanceIrrelevant Rewards on Children's Intrinsic Motivation. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 482-487. An experiment was conducted to test the effects of rewards that were either contingent (performance relevant) or noncontingent (performance irrelevant) on success at an activity on the intrinsic interest of children aged 4-9. The reward contingency manipulation was crossed with bogus feedback concerning subjects' ability at the task. Subjects who performed well and received performance-irrelevant rewards showed decreased interest in the activity during a subsequent free-play period as compared with subjects who received performance-relevant rewards or no rewards. Subjects in the no-reward and performance-relevant reward conditions showed decreased interest in the activity when told that they had performed poorly. A trend in the opposite direction was obtained in the performance-irrelevant reward condition. The data were interpreted as generally consistent with hypotheses relating the cue value of performance-relevant rewards to effectance motivation and intrinsic interest.