Effects of the contingency for homework submission on homework submission and quiz performance in a college course.
College students need point contingencies, not just feedback, to reliably submit homework and perform better on quizzes.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Aznar et al. (2005) ran two small classroom experiments.
They compared two homework rules for college students.
One rule gave course points for turning work in.
The other rule gave only teacher feedback.
The class switched back and forth between the rules every week.
The teachers counted how many students handed work in and how they scored on weekly quizzes.
What they found
When points were on the line, more students handed homework in.
Quiz scores also rose during the point weeks.
When only feedback was offered, both numbers dropped.
The pattern repeated each time the rule changed.
Points, not comments, controlled the behavior.
How this fits with other research
Coleman (1987) saw the same thing in a lab.
College students picked simple point jobs over higher-paying contests.
The early study shows points are powerful even when bigger money is possible.
Potter et al. (2013) moved the idea online.
They paid adults over fifty for walking.
Steps doubled while money was available, then fell when it stopped.
Together the three studies stretch the homework model across ages, settings, and tech.
Why it matters
If you teach teens or adults, feedback alone may fail.
Attach even small point value to the act of submitting work.
Use your grade-book or a token sheet.
The student does not need a big prize—just a clear contingency.
You should see more work turned in and better quiz scores within two weeks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Effects of the contingency for submission of homework assignments on the probability of assignment submission and on quiz grades were assessed in an undergraduate psychology course. Under an alternating treatments design, each student was assigned to a points condition for 5 of 10 quiz-related homework assignments corresponding to textbook chapters. Points were available for homework submission under this condition; points were not available under the no-points condition. The group-mean percentage of homework assignments submitted and quiz grades were higher for all chapters under the points condition than in the no-points condition. These findings, which were replicated in Experiment 2, demonstrate that homework submission was not maintained when the only consequences were instructor-provided feedback and expectation of improved quiz performance.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2005 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2005.123-03