Operant Conditioning

"Should We Bribe Kids?" Time Magazine - April 19, 2010

Summary: In the fall of 2007, Roland Fryer Jr. ran a randomized experiment in hundreds of classrooms in multiple cities to answer one question, can paying kids to well in school really work? He ended up paying 18,000 kids a total of $6.3 million to do the right thing. The experiment was conducted in Dallas, Chicago, Washington, and New York City. With each city having a different model of incentive. In Dallas 2nd graders were paid $2 for every book they read and completed a computerized quiz on. In Chicago 9th graders were paid $50 for an A, $35 for a B, $20 for a C, up to $2,000 a year. In Washington middleschoolers were paid for 5 different actions including attendance and behavior, perfect marks in every category could make $100 every 2 weeks. In New York City 4th graders could earn up to $25 per test, and 7th graders could earn up to $50 per test. In Dallas 2nd graders reading-comprehension scores went up significantly. In Chicago the kids who got money for grades attended more classes and got better grades but didn't do better on standardized testing. In Washington the kids did better on standardized testing. In New York City there was no effect.

Application: This article relates to chapter 5: operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the learning of voluntary behaviors throught the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses. In this experiment they were trying to get the kids to do better in school, get better grades, do better on standardized testing by giving them money as an incentive. The money being the pleasant response, and the studying more, attending class, reading a book, etc. being the voluntary behavior.