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Learned Helplessness in Learning Disabled Adolescents as a Function of Noncontingent Rewards

The study was designed to examine the effect of noncontingent rewards on learned helplessness in learning disabled children. Noncontingent rewards are of particular importance for students receiving services in a variety of educational environments. Subjects were exposed to two series of tasks, the first involved replication of a series of block design patterns. Children were randomly assigned to three reward schedules: response-contingent reward, 100% noncontingent reward, and 50% random noncontingent reward. A fourth control group was not exposed to the first series of tasks. The second task series involved the solution of coding problems. On these tasks, all children received response-contingent rewards for performance. Response latency and errors on each coding task served as dependent measures. Analysis of variance yielded significantly greater response latencies for subjects assigned to the noncontingent reward conditions than for those who received contingent rewards and for controls. No differences in number of errors were found. The results suggest that learning disabled children may become “learned helpless” as a result of instructional interventions involving use of noncontingent rewards.