Noncontingent Reward-Induced Learned Helplessness in Humans

Noncontingent verbal and concrete rewards were incorporated into a learned-helplessness paradigm in an attempt to provide increased generalizability of the reward-induced helplessness phenomenon. The treatment phase required subjects to reproduce a series of block-designs, for which they received either verbal or concrete reward according to one of three schedules: response contingent, 100% noncontingent, or 50% random noncontingent. A control group was not exposed to the task. The performance phase involved a letter/number-substitution coding task during which all subjects received response-contingent reward. Analysis showed a helplessness effect, with the noncontingent reward conditions producing significantly more errors and omissions than contingent reward and/or control conditions. Differences in effects of verbal and concrete rewards were nonsignificant.