THE WORK OUTPUT OF RETARDED READERS USING A PROGRAMED LITERACY CURRICULUM WAS OBSERVED UNDER VARIOUS CONDITIONS OF REINFORCEMENT IN A CONTROLLED CLASSROOM. TASK BEHAVIOR WAS FOLLOWED BY CONDITIONS OF NO CONSEQUENCE, TEACHER PRAISE, A WORK-BREAK CONSEQUENCE, A MONETARY CONSEQUENCE, AND FEEDBACK ON AMOUNT OF WORK RELATIVE TO PREVIOUS WORK. SIX DIFFERENT EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED WITH SUBJECTS RANGING IN AGE FROM 70 MONTHS TO 12 YEARS 7 MONTHS. THE EXTINCTION OF TASK BEHAVIOR TENDED TO OCCUR UNDER CONDITIONS OF NO CONSEQUENCE AND OF TEACHER PRAISE. CONDITIONS OF MONETARY CONSEQUENCE AND OF FEEDBACK ON PROGRESS RESULTED IN HIGH, SUSTAINED RATES OF WORK BEHAVIOR. DETAILED RESULTS ARE REPORTED IN TABLES AND FIGURES. (AUTHOR)