Effects of contingency contracting on study rate and test performance

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Contingency contracting is a behavioral intervention strategy.
• Its effectiveness in enhancing academic performance requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a contingency contracting program's impact on undergraduate psychology students' study rates and test performance.
• To assess the generalizability of study gains to non-contracted courses.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a contingency contracting program with an experimental group of undergraduate psychology students.
• Used individual experiments and a reversal procedure to assess study rate changes.
• Compared final course scores of the experimental group with two matched control groups to evaluate test performance.

Main Results:

• Contingency contracting significantly increased study rates across a wide range of student abilities.
• The program selectively improved test performance only in below-average students.
• Study rate improvements did not generalize to non-contracted courses.

Conclusions:

• Contingency contracting is an effective method for increasing study rates in undergraduate students.
• Its benefits for test performance are limited to specific student subgroups.
• Intervention effects may not generalize to other academic contexts.