Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

George Noell

Committee Member

Kristin Heron

Committee Member

Erin Moore

Abstract

Task persistence plays a crucial role in children's academic success and achievement of long-term goals. Contextual variables may influence child persistence such as reward source reliability, task difficulty, or task arrangement. We evaluated the effects of reward source reliability on children's academic task persistence with task difficulty. The perception of the reliability of the reward source was manipulated by making a commitment to provide a reward after completion of the task, but upon completion, delivery was delayed to the next day. The study was designed to examine the extent to which experiencing prior disappointments would decrease persistence times on subsequent tasks of varying difficulty. Participants with a prior history of having rewards deferred persisted less on subsequent tasks. Children persisted longer on hard rather than easy tasks after disappointment after rewards were deferred. These results suggest that a complex relationship may exist between contextual variables and task persistence in children. Further understanding these mechanisms may provide insights for educators and caregivers seeking to promote persistence in children's academic endeavors.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/00wr-zx91

ISBN

9798280750739

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