Albert J. Lott

The effect of delayed reward on the development of positive attitudes toward persons

Abstract On the basis of a theory of interpersonal attraction in which positive attitudes toward persons are conceptualized as implicit anticipatory goal responses (rg-sg), it was predicted that greater liking would be developed toward a stimulus person consistently associated with immediate reward than toward one consistently associated with delayed reward. 32 first grade subjects, treated individually, performed a simple task in the presence of each of two adult assistants, one of whom was always associated with immediate reward (14 trials) while the other was always associated with a 10-second delay (14 trials). For a control group of 16 subjects both of the assistants were paired with an equal number of immediate and delayed rewards. All subjects alternated their trials between one adult helper and the other, in a partially predetermined order. On three dependent measures of attraction, a direct question regarding which helper was liked best, a 15-step liking scale, and evaluative semantic differential judgments, significant differences were found between experimental and control subjects in their relative liking of the two assistants. On two other measures, results were in the predicted direction but not statistically reliable. The data are discussed in terms of positive effects of immediate reward and possible negative effects of delay attributed to frustration.

The relation of manifest anxiety in children to learning task performance and other variables.

Relations between level of manifest anxiety, as measured by the CMAS, and other variables were predicted on the basis of previous findings and theoretical expectations and were tested on a sample of 9- and 10-yearold children. The Negro-white variable and grade level, but not sex, were found to be reliably related to A score. Some support was obtained for a negative correlation between A score and intelligence, and weak support for a negative correlation between A score and social standing. The present data provide no evidence for a relation between manifest anxiety and learning task performance. The findings are compared with those from other relevant investigations and are interpreted in the light of procedural and theoretical considerations.