Torres 1

Jose Torres

Judith McCann

English 1302

1 February 2023

Praising Infants

Introduction

When it comes to doing tasks many individuals appreciate a good job. When incentives

like praise can make others feel as if did a great job, which improves their mood. Not only that,

but a good job could improve someone's overall speed and efficiency. While others might not

think it, the benefits of praise can be seen all the way back into someone's infancy By analyzing

an infant getting praised while doing certain tasks one can see signs of greater speed, efficiency,

and overall mood.

Speed

While conducting the experiment the first thing one could notice was the change of pace

when it comes to problem-solving. During the first day of the experiment, the researchers

intended to have 3 cups with a ball inside. The ball would be mixed around and we would have

the child figure out where the ball was. The child did not understand what was happening or

where the ball was. The researchers did not take into account that the infant was too adolescent,

therefore their sense of object permanence isn't all that present. While the first idea failed we

developed a new idea when the infant started to stack the cups together. The researchers arranged

the cups into a tower and began to measure how fast the child would stack them while giving

said child praise. The first time try was confusing. It took 12.30 seconds for the child to stack up

the cups. Once the child got the grasp of what was happening we commenced the trial again.
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During this trail he stacked the cups in 7.21 seconds. After this the infant was very eager to stack

the cups himself without the timer running. When he would stack the cups he would clap his

hands. After this trail we did a 3rd trail. With no hesitation the child had stacked up the cups

within 5.52 seconds. And unsurprisingly during the 4th trail the child stacked it up in 4.25

seconds. The child had improved his speed in a record amount of time. These trials were all

record in a time frame of 10 minutes with almost no breaks in between.

Efficiency

Efficiency as one of the most notable characteristics shown within the test. Although the

test were supposed to be a cup mixing game, the child decided to stack cups instead. When the

researchers put the ball in the cup and mixed the child ignored that and made their own form of

entertainment in a matter of seconds. Once the researchers agreed to do the cup stacking we were

all amazed at what we saw. During the beginning there was a lot of hesitancy due to there being

many researchers analyzing the child. The cups were arranged into a small structure and at first

the child would knock over cups. It wasnt until after praise when they began to act more

efficiently. After praise instead of knocking the cups over it would grab the cups individually and

begin to stack them up. We did this 4 times and noticed the same movements being done but at a

faster pace than usual each time. During the last trail instead of putting aside a cup and putting it

on top of another, the child would grab the cup that was on top and put it on top of the other cup.

These types of efficient movements cut the time by 2.68 seconds for every trail.