ANALYSIS OF CONTROL BY RULES PRESENT IN CHILDREN’S STORIES

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of descriptive rules presented in children’s stories about giving behavior. Twenty children, 10 in each experiment, were submitted to the task of giving chocolate cookies. Experiment 1 had 2 conditions with 3 phases each. In Phase 2 of each condition it was told a story with a different rule. In Condition 1 the rule described that who gives and share toys has more friends to play with. In Condition 2 the rule described the behavior of helping others and caring their belongins. In Phases 1 and 3 in both Conditions the behavior of giving chocolate cookies was measured. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, except that in Condition 3 the rule asserted that who gives food has more friends to play with, and in Condition 4 the rule described aspects of endangered animals. In Phase 3 participants of Conditions 1, 2, 3, 4 donated 60%, 40%, 100%, 40% of the chocolate cookies respectively. Results suggest that the effects of stories depend partially of their formal properties.Keywords: descriptive rules, children’s stories, formal properties of rules.