Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Type and Combination of Feedback on Children’s Discrimination Learning

Abstract

The incentive model of the effects of reward and punishment on human learning has often been researched. To estimate the relative effects of three types and three combinations of feedback on children’s discrimination learning, a meta-analysis was performed on the findings of 89 studies. In general, reward campared to punishment or to reward plus punishment is the least efficient feedback for teaching children discrimination materials. Reward plus punishment appears to result in the best performance. However, in four comparisons of punishment versus reward plus punishment, punishment is either as effective or more effective than the combination. The data also suggest that these findings are also mediated by the type of feedback used. Punishment also seems to be comparatively more effective when the task is simple rather than complex. Punishment results in the best performance, compared to reward plus punishment, when the child is bright, upper class, and in the fourth or higher grades