Undergraduate Research Conference 2024

In school, children are presented with challenging tasks and easier tasks. Although easier tasks may lead to better performance and challenging tasks may lead to worse performance, challenging tasks present more learning outcomes and can strengthen mental fortitude. 

The current study investigates whether children's preferences for high- versus low-effort cognitive tasks can be influenced by rewards contingent upon their performance and task choices. 60 9- to 12-year-old children were presented with a series of computer games in which they were given the choice of a high- or low-effort cognitive task. 

Participants were rewarded for either better performance, selecting the high-effort task, or a randomly as a control. We predict that children will initially select the low-effort task associated with better performance more frequently; however, we predict that the introduction of reward for picking the high-effort task will alter the aversiveness of lower performance, resulting in more selection of high-effort tasks even when reward is not offered. 

This outcome would suggest that children’s choices can be intervened with to encourage the habit of selecting high-effort tasks, regardless of performance. Findings will have implications for curriculum development and academic reward strategies of middle school aged children.