Effects of social incentives on task performance in the elderly.
The performance of 60 elderly volunteers (mean age = 74.5 years) on two cancellation tasks was examined under one of three experimental conditions: social praise, social reproof, or no comment. When compared with the no-comment group, subjects in the reproof condition showed response increments over baseline performance (p less than .05). Praise, when compared with no comment, failed to reach statistical significance. Results are interpreted in terms of the possible negative reinforcement, challenge, or informational properties of reproof. The clear implications from these data are that social incentives may well facilitate behavioral change in the aged and that there is a need for further examination of the effects of this variable.
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012056:Reinforcement, Social; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis