A group contingency program to improve the behavior of elementary school students in a cafeteria.
A five-minute random group game can turn a loud cafeteria calm without extra staff.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a group contingency in an elementary cafeteria.
Kids could earn a mystery prize for the whole table if they followed rules.
Staff picked one random rule each day and checked it for five minutes.
When the program stopped for two school breaks, loud behavior came back.
What they found
Disruptive noise dropped whenever the random reward game was on.
The breaks acted like built-in tests and showed the program was the cause.
No extra adults were needed; the lunch aides did the checks.
How this fits with other research
Joslyn et al. (2024) later used the same idea in tough alternative classes.
They hid the rule so teens could not cheat, yet disruption still fell.
Aguilar et al. (2025) swapped the random prize for a dependent plan.
One child’s good behavior earned the whole class a reward, and it still worked.
Fay (1970) did an early version with candy and radio beeps in a classroom.
The 2008 study moves that old idea to the noisy cafeteria and keeps it simple.
Why it matters
You can run this tomorrow with any class and a brown bag of small prizes.
Pick one rule, keep it secret, check for five minutes, and hand out the reward if the rule is met.
No extra staff, no tokens, no clip charts—just quieter lunches and happier kids.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Studies of behavior modification interventions for disruptive behavior in schools have generally focused on classroom behavior with less research directed toward child behavior in other school settings (e.g., cafeterias). The present report documents the effect of a group contingency intervention with a random reward component, targeting disruptive cafeteria behavior. An uncontrolled study of the effect of the group contingency program across the school year suggested substantial behavior improvement after the program started. Two natural treatment discontinuations during the same school year provide further support for the intervention. Both sources of information suggest behavioral improvement in rule-following behavior when the program was actively implemented.
Behavior modification, 2008 · doi:10.1177/0145445507308577