Output rates among butter wrappers: II. Frequency distributions and an hypothesis regarding the "restriction of output."

Abstract

"To the extent that the present limited data permitted, it was desired to investigate the plausibility of the various hypotheses concerning the measurement of 'restriction of output' or, as it has been re-defined here, of the 'effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the incentives' offered for working at an optimal rate… the workers studied here did not show a close correspondence on their re-tests… the ratio of the range of intra-individual differences was higher than the ratio of the range of inter-individual differences. This would most likely not be true of a typical laboratory experiment on a similar type of manipulation. This leads to the hypothesis that the incentives to work may be considered ineffective when the ratio of the range of intra-individual differences is greater than the ratio of the range of inter-individual differences ." (See also 20: 4298.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)