Johnson, C. M., Bradley-Johnson, S., McCarthy, R., & Jamie, M. (1984). Token reinforcement during WISC-R administration II. Effects on mildly retarded black students . Applied Research in Mental Retardation , 5 (1), 43–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0270-3092(84)80018-1

Journal Article

Johnson, C. M., Bradley-Johnson, S., McCarthy, R., & Jamie, M. (1984). Token reinforcement during WISC-R administration II. Effects on mildly retarded black students. Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 5(1), 43–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0270-3092(84)80018-1

Tags

Elementary; Intelligence test; Reinforcement

Summary

Accommodation

The test was administered under two conditions (a) Standardized administration, and (b) Standardized administration with token reinforcement.

Participants

Experiment 1: Twenty Black, elementary school-aged children with mild intellectual disabilities participated. The students resided in a rural county and came from families of low socioeconomic status. Mean age was 10 years, 3 months.

Experiment 2: Participants included 22 Black, junior high school-aged children with mild intellectual disabilities from a mid-eastern city. Ages ranged from 12 years, 7 months to 14 years, 11 months. 

Dependent Variable

The WISC-R Intelligence Test, except the Mazes subtest, was administered.

Findings

Experiment 1: Elementary participants evinced WISC-R scores that were an average of nine points higher if they were reinforced with tokens for correct responding, in comparison with when receiving only standardized administration procedures. Only the Verbal IQ scores, however, were higher for the experimental group than the control group. No difference was noted for the Performance IQ scores.

Experiment 2: For junior high participants, scores were not significantly affected by token rewards.