Reinforcement Effects of Adult Reactions and Nonreactions on Children's Achievement Expectations1,22

There are many times during a child's formative years when his naivete and unfamiliarity with social standards and expectations leave him wondering whether his efforts are defined by others as success or failure. Since in these novel situations he does not yet know how to discriminate the relevant cues for proper performance from the situation per se, he cannot determine for himself what it is that defines success and must depend on others for this judgment. Social reinforcements in a novel task or in a new social situation, then, give the child information which helps him to select the proper response. While adult reactions to a child's behavior in a familiar situation may continue to strengthen a habit and maintain the child's behavior, they probably no longer have as many informative and selective properties. Parent-child interactions in the latter, familiar situations were not the focus of this study. The interest here was in the possible active, informative reinforcement properties of adult nonreaction in new situations where children cannot yet define success or failure for themselves.