Feedback effects on the performance and self-reinforcing behavior of elderly and young adult women
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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
Abstract:
A total of 64 college-aged and elderly women participated in an experimental study of the effects of noncontingent positive feedback on simple speeded performance, performance self-evaluations, and self-reinforcing behavior (i.e., the number of S&H Green Stamps taken following feedback). Younger women self-reinforced more and held higher self-evaluations of their performance than elderly women. The treatment produced increases in all three dependent measures, and greater increases in self-reinforcing behaviors and self-evaluations were demonstrated for the elderly than for the younger women. The results are discussed in terms of age-associated differences in the susceptibility to external feedback.
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