A researcher was investigating the effects of incentives on problem solving performance with children. Two randomly selected groups of children were required to work on a variety of problems. One group served as a control group. The other group was given an incentive to solve problems. They were told that for each problem solved they would receive points that they could trade in for special treats. The mean number of problems solved by the control group was 12.6 with a standard deviation of 2.6. The mean number of problems solved by the incentive group was 12.6 with a standard deviation of 6.4. The researcher's assistant was surprised that the incentive had no effect on problem solving performance. The researcher, however, explained that in fact the incentive did affect performance. How
did the incentive affect the children's performance?
What will be an ideal response?
Correct Answer:
The incentive served to increase the variability. Some of the children solved many more problems when the incentive was offered but some of the others solved many fewer. This is not an unusual finding. Any kind of pressure to perform often affects children very differently. Some work very well under pressure and some do not work at all.
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