Shaping Cooperative Cross-Sex Play

Abstract

SERBIN, LISA A.; TONICK, ILLENE J.; and STERNGLANZ, SARAH H. Shaping Cooperative CrossSex Play. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 924-929. Contingent praise by classroom teachers was used to cue and reinforce cross-sex cooperative play in 2 nursery school classes of 4-yearold children. A time-lagged, reversal design (ABA in class 1 and AAABA in class 2) was utilized. Reinforcement increased rates of cooperative opposite-sex play significantly (p < .05) in both classes. Removal of treatment resulted in a complete reversal in both classes, indicating that previous learning and/or current classroom contingencies may generally reinforce samesex playmate choices when teachers do not deliberately reinforce play between boys and girls.