Abstract
240 elementary school children, equally divided by sex, were tested on a marble-sorting task. Ss within dyads of comparable or discrepant baseline rates were given different verbal incentives (reproof, praise, or competition), and amount of performance rate increment was measured. Both praise and competition exceeded reproof when paired with it (P < .05), while praise and competition did not differ significantly. The boys made greater increments, over-all, than did the girls (P < .05). The rank order of marble-sorting performance-level (dyads) was exactly opposite for the sexes (girls: high-high > low-low > high-low > low-high; boys: low-high > high-low > low-low > high-high). For both sexes, praise exceeded reproof in all performance-level pairs except where the low performer was reproved and the high performer praised. Competition exceeded reproof in all performance-level pairings with both sexes. Praise exceeded competition for the girls in all performance-level dyads, and for the boys in the low-low, and low-high pairs, while competition was superior in the high-high and high-low boys pairs.