Overjustification in a Token Economy
Greene, Sternberg and Lepper studied 44 fourth and fifth graders in two elementary classrooms. A daily period let pupils choose among four mathematics activities, and tokens were exchangeable for prizes at four assemblies. Three groups were differentially reinforced for target activities against one control. During treatment all three reinforced groups spent significantly more time on their target activities than controls; after differential reinforcement was withdrawn, two of the three spent significantly less time on them than controls.
Greene, Sternberg and Lepper studied 44 fourth and fifth graders in two elementary classrooms. A daily period let pupils choose among four mathematics activities, and tokens were exchangeable for prizes at four assemblies. Three groups were differentially reinforced for target activities against one control. During treatment all three reinforced groups spent significantly more time on their target activities than controls; after differential reinforcement was withdrawn, two of the three spent significantly less time on them than controls.
Written from the full text read at source for the vault hub, 2026-10-20; Crossref record 2026-11-02.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Greene, D., Sternberg, B., & Lepper, M. R. (1976). Overjustification in a Token Economy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(6), 1219-1234.