People offered a reward generally choose the easiest possible task, whereas children without rewards pick tasks just beyond their current ability¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1994 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? At least ten studies show people offered a reward generally choose the easiest possible task; without rewards, children pick tasks just beyond their current level of ability. → Kohn 1994

Evidence¶

Kohn 1994¶

Kohn, Alfie. (1994). The Risks of Rewards. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education Urbana IL. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED376990

q2 · i? · review · r1

The digest reports that "people offered a reward generally choose the easiest possible task," citing ten studies via Kohn (1993), and contrasts this with unrewarded children choosing challenging tasks. No effect sizes are printed.

"At least ten studies have shown that people offered a reward generally choose the easiest possible task (Kohn, 1993). In the absence of rewards, by contrast, children are inclined to pick tasks that are just beyond their current level of ability."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Rewards cause people to lose interest in whatever they were rewarded for doing, undermining intrinsic motivation — related
• Extrinsic rewards deplete intrinsic motivation for already-motivated activities once the rewards are removed — related
• People expecting a reward for a task perform worse than those expecting nothing, especially on tasks requiring cognitive sophistication and open-ended thinking — related
• Behavior modification programs relying on rewards rarely produce lasting changes in attitudes or behavior, and children whose parents frequently use rewards tend to be less generous — related