Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of punishment and reward on performing problem-solving task among impulsive groups and non-impulsive group. Hypotheses were that impulsive groups will show rapid and inaccurate performance on task in reward condition rather than punishment condition. Suject classified four groups including student impulsive group(n=20), student non-impulsive group(n=25) and delinquent impulsive group(n=17) by the combination of the scores of extraversion/introversion and neuroticism of Eysenck Personalty Questionnaire Korean version. Inspection time, inspection frequency, response latency time, order of inspection and rate of hit response on performing task were measured by computer program. Subjects performed under two incentive conditions including punishment only and involving reward and punishmint. No signigicant effects were found in the inspection time, response latency time and order of inspection. But rate of hit response showed significant interaction effects of Group*Condition. Student non-impulsive groups performed best and delinquent impulsive group performed worst. The result indicate that in contrast to non-impulsive group, impulsive group are activated by the availability of reward, and suggest that the training program will focus the accurate response rather than speed on performing problem-solving task.