Reward, Punishment and Reversal on a Mirror-Tracing Task

Abstract

In an attempt to “equate” punishment and reward, a situation was devised where the informational content, intensity and method of delivery were the same. On a mirror-tracing task both punishment and reward affected Ss' performance. The initial effect of punishment was more pronounced than the initial effect of reward. When Ss were told to reverse the direction of tracing, degradation of performance was less for the punished group than for the reward group.