Storage in Children's Word Recognition as a Function of Incentives

Summary

Boys and girls in Grades 4, 6, and 8 were presented a 48-word list, in which each item was associated with a 5¢, 3¢, or l¢ reward, in order to test incentive effects on storage by means of a forced choice recognition paradigm assumed to minimize retrieval effects. Results showed (a) higher probabilities of recognition for words associated with higher incentive values, (b) serial position effects, and (c) a suggestive developmental progression in recognition performance. Differential reward influences upon storage and serial position were interpreted in terms of two-process memorial and incentive theories.