THE EFFECT’S OF EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION (REWARDS) ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A MOTOR SKILL IN CHILDREN

Adam Hunter, Guy Koller, Evan Long, and Rachel McCluskie; The Australian Catholic University.

ABSTRACT

Sixty participants from a year 3 and 4 primary school physical education class, were instructed to perform a motor task (overarm throwing skill). Three differential experimental conditions where used (control, no reward/reward, reward/no reward) to examine the affect of extrinsic motivation on the motor skill performance of young children.

A three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that the experimental groups were significantly different from the control group at the 0.05 level indicating that the extrinsic motivation in the form of a reward incurred a positive performance response from the participants. No significant difference was found between the average performance of the first set of three throws and the average performance of the second set. There was also no significant differences observed between the improvement of one group compared to the other.

KEY WORDS: Extrinsic, Reward, Motivation, Performance, Motor Task and Reinforcement.

INTRODUCTION

Motivation and the factors which influence the level motivation of participants while performing in particular tasks has always been of great interest for those who study exercise science. We rarely choose to persist in any kind of activity unless we perceive that it is accompanied by some of personal reward, benefit, or incentive.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of extrinsic motivation on the motor skill performance among year 3 and 4 primary school children in an overarm throwing task.

Past research has confirmed that in the majority of cases extrinsic motivation is an influencing factor in performance, the aim of this investigation is to apply this knowledge in a practical task to determine if the results observed in the surveys applied to a practical skill.

This study examines whether this improvement on performance extends to specific tasks such as overhand throwing and whether there is any variation in this improvement between males and females.

It is expected that the utilisation of extrinsic rewards will significantly improve the performance of overhand throwing among young children and that there will be no significant difference in the improvement observed between male and female. It is predicted that there will be a significant improvement in performance when a reward is offered in comparison to when no reward is offered.

Participants
Students were randomly selected from three year 3 classes and three year 4 classes, thirty males and thirty female subjects aged 8-10 years participated in the study. The participants were divided into six groups. (Ten per group, five male and five female) 2 for each treatment condition.

Procedure
Every participant was given the same instruction on how to stand and throw the ball. Each participant was required to complete the over arm throwing task with his or her preferred hand, three times in the first round and three times in the second round. The distance of each throw was measured and the average of these scores for each round was then tallied.

The distance was measured from the foot line to where the ball landed on the full. Each throw in each round was measured and recorded, then an average of each round was calculated. When the average from each round had been calculated the percentage increase or decrease was calculated. This was recorded manually on record sheets and also recorded into a laptop program.

Through the use of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) the results were further analysed to determine if any significance existed between the different treatment conditions. The SCHEFFE (Stepwise Test for Significant Difference) was used to further analysis the results to determine where this significance existed.

Performance

The results for the males and females for each group showed that there was no significant difference between the average performance of the first set of three throws and the average performance of the second set of three throws.  This was found for all three groups.

The comparison between the differences in the means from the first set and the second set for specific male and female groups as well as the groups as a whole found that the experimental groups were significantly different from the control group at the 0.05 level.

The results showed that there was no significant difference between the average performance of the first set and second set of throws for any group. The comparison between the differences in the means from the first set and the second set for the groups found that the experimental groups were significantly different from the control group at the 0.05 level. However, the improvement observed when a reward was offered in each experimental group was not significantly difference compared to the other experimental group (Table 1, Figure 1).

Performance on it own should not be used as an indicator for the motivational levels; effort or intensity with which an individual puts into a motor task as the variations may result from inter-individual differences in the effort and ability.

The difference between the averages of the sets when compared to the control group. This supports the hypothesis, which predicted an improvement in performance when an extrinsic reward was offered.

The improvement in performance may have only been in the short term and a different result may have been seen if the experiment was over a longer period of time (Biddle, 1986, p. iv-viii; Lepper & Greene, 1975, p. 479-486; Fox & Biddle, 1988, p. 17-82).

The learning effect was eliminated through the use of the second experimental group to increase performance. If a learning effect had taken place this would have demonstrated no significant difference between experimental group 2 and the control group which was not the case.

The results of this investigation suggest that gender does not cause large amounts of vatiation, therefore similar motivational tools could be applied for both males and female children. The variation between some of the groups may be the result of individual variation. Therefore, individual variation may need to be considered as more important than the gender differences (Biddle, 1986, p. iv-viii; Biddle & Brooke, 1992, p. 247-256).

Acknowledgments: We wish to thank the following people for their input, support and assistance during the course of this study:

John McAtamney (Co-ordinator of Junior School Sport at Central Coast Grammar School) for his great support and services prior and during the testing procedure.

Mr Richard Launing (Principle of Central Coast Grammar School) for his time in the preparation of the study and allowed us to conduct testing involving their student during their sports class time.

All the other staff for Central Coast Grammar School involved in the organisation and supervision prior and during testing day.

The year three and four students from the Central Coast Grammar School, who willingly participated in this investigation.