The Effects of Incentives on Rehearsal and Short-Term Memory in Children with Reading Problems

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners are focusing increased attention on the apparent lack of intrinsic involvement and motivation exhibited by disabled learners. This study seems to support the idea that one of the causes of failure in disabled learners is their lack of motivation to perform at their best. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of incentives for good performance on the selection and use of an efficient task strategy by children who were experiencing difficulty learning to read. Both good and poor readers in the incentive group increased their recall and rehearsal between sessions, while the performance of the control group remained stable. Incentives led not only to an increase in the amount of rehearsal shown by poor readers, but also to an increase in the number of children reporting that they used the strategy.