Institutionalized mentally retarded children performed on a two-choice discrimination task under one of 6 conditions of reward (response-contingent consumable, response-contingent nonconsumable, token-consumable, token-nonconsumable, token, social). The results indicated that response-contingent nonconsumable rewards were not more distracting than response-contingent consumable rewards nor was the presentation of material rewards by the token-reinforcement procedure less distracting than the response-contingent reinforcement procedure. Further, social reinforcement was less effective than response-contingent nonconsumable rewards; however, no differences were found between social reinforcement and the other material rewards regardless of reinforcement procedure.