A Paired Comparisons Scale of Children's Preferences for Monetary and Material Rewards Used in Investigations of Incentive Effects

Summary

The method of paired comparisons was used to determine 40 first-, third-, and fifth-grade children's preferences for 12 objects frequently employed as rewards in developmental studies. Significant coefficients of agreement demonstrated stability in the preference order of the 12 objects across the three grades, despite minor fluctuations in preferences for some items. Increases in both intraindividual consistency and interindividual ageement were obtained as a function of developmental level. Despite the introduction of monetary incentives to replace edible rewards employed in a study a decade earlier, the eight rewards common to both scales approximated rank order identity; consistency and agreement data, and developmental trends were highly similar in both studies. Differentiation of preferences increased with age. Full appreciation of the quantitative relationship between the dime and nickel developed between first and third grade, and the coins increased in salience relative to the other rewards through fifth grade.