The effects of goal setting, contingent reward, and instruction on writing skills.

The team worked with one 10-year-old in a classroom. They set a daily goal for correctly spelled words. The child earned small prizes for meeting the goal. Later they added short writing lessons.

The study used a single-case design. Each change was tested one at a time. The goal was to see if rewards plus teaching beat rewards alone.

Goal setting and prizes first raised spelling accuracy. When writing lessons were added, the child also wrote more complete sentences. Rewards alone helped spelling. Teaching plus rewards helped both spelling and sentence building.

Friedling et al. (1979) first tried self-instruction alone with hyperactive second-graders. Nothing improved until they added tokens. The 2014 study echoes this: instruction only shines when paired with reward.

Zentall et al. (1975) used public posting and praise to double writing output. The new study swaps public posting for goal setting and still gains accuracy. Both show that feedback plus reward packs power.

Schmidt et al. (2024) later tested fixed-ratio reward with a teen who has ID. Writing speed rose fast. Together the three papers span 50 years and show the same core rule: pair clear contingencies with academic tasks.

You can copy this two-step plan tomorrow. First, give the learner a reachable daily goal and a quick prize for hitting it. Second, layer in five minutes of direct writing instruction. The combo lifts both mechanics and structure without extra staff or tech.