Effects of Social and Token Reinforcement on WISC Block Design Performance

Abstract

Amounts of accuracy and speed gain in WISC Block Design performance under 3 treatments (control, social reinforcement, or token reinforcement) were tested with 48 fourth graders of average ability, equally divided as to sex, who were matched by pretest performance on these variables. Boys showed significant gains in accuracy only under token reinforcement and significant speed gains only under social reinforcement ( Ps < .05), while girls showed significant gains in accuracy under all three treatments ( Ps < .05) but also speed losses under all treatments ( Ps < .05). Girls showed significantly greater gains in accuracy than boys under social reinforcement, while boys showed significantly greater speed gains than girls under social reinforcement ( Ps < .05).