The Mystery Motivator intervention allows for immediate and consistent feedback for target behaviors as well as praise for the students meeting a day’s set criteria. Consequently, research has proven that immediate reinforcers will strengthen the wanted behavior in a student. The use of tallying allows for the teacher to provide consequences efficiently when the target behaviors occur. The students are also reminded every day of the rules and expectations which will reinforce their awareness of any possible future behaviors (Kowalewicz & Coffee, 2014). Another strength of this intervention is that it is based upon random rewards that reinforce the positive behaviors. The envelope with a question mark allows the students anticipation to rise as they wonder what the reward might be. The anticipation helps the students’ motivation to decrease target behaviors or increase positive behaviors. Therefore, the uncertainty of the reward helps students remain interested and continue to work towards earning the mystery reward (Kraemer, Davies, Arndt, & Hunley, 2012). The following will …show more content…
Research has shown that class-wide interventions make it more likely target behaviors will be addressed and that 80% of students are more likely to respond to the intervention (Robichaux & Gresham, 2014). Interdependent group contingency models have also been proven to minimize a teacher’s time redirecting problem behavior and improve student cooperation (Maag, 1999). Furthermore, one study found that all classrooms using Mystery Motivator had immediate reductions in the amount of disruptive and problem behaviors. In this study, many teachers noted that the amount of time to implement this intervention was acceptable, it was easy to learn, and data collection was practical. Many teachers mentioned that they would use the intervention again in the future (Kowalewicz & Coffee,