Comparison for Mental Retardates of No-Choice, Initial-Choice, and Idiosyncratic-Choice Reward Strategies

Abstract

45 mentally retarded persons (CA about 18 yr.) worked on both a two-choice discrimination task and a perseverance task under one of three reward conditions. An Idiosyncratic-choice condition, which offered trial-to-trial freedom in the selection of rewards, was expected to lead to higher levels of performance than No-choice or Initial-choice conditions. However, no reliable differences in task performance resulted from the employment of the three reward strategies. Sex and IQ predicted a posteriori performance at least as well as condition of reward. The findings are discussed in relation to “reinforcement menu” technique and incentive theory.

Concepts and Issues Related to Choice Making and Autonomy among Persons with Severe Disabilities

“…A study by Lovitt and Curtis (1969) showed that a 12-year-old child with severe emotional problems improved performance on academic tasks when allowed to determine his own criterion level. However, Alexander (1974) found that allowing adolescents with moderate mental retardation to choose their reinforcers, either for the entire session or for each trial, did not lead to higher levels of performance on discrimination or perseverance tasks.…”