Attributions of performance associated with learned helplessness and the effect of extrinsic reinforcement in learning disabled and non-learning disabled children.

Abstract

Learning disabled and non-learning disabled students were initially compared on attributions for academic performance. Half of the learning disabled and non-learning disabled students were put in a learned helplessness treatment and afterwards assessed on their attributions. The treatment and control students were then presented to solvable learning task with anticipated and unanticipated extrinsic reward conditions and their performance measured. Differences were found between learning disabled and non-learning disabled children on their initial attributions and following the learned helplessness condition. Performance was affected by the reward conditions. Results are discussed in terms of helplessness theory, motivation and implications for research.