I don’t read articles very often, but maybe hanging out
with Anthony is enough peer pressure to get me going on that a bit. In “Why Do Some People Learn Faster?”
(Jonah Lehrer; wired.com) I was told why I’m such a loser now and give up so
easily when presented with difficulties.
Here’s my summary of the situation presented in the
article:
We all have mostly inevitable negative and almost
immediate responses to our mistakes.
Then immediately afterward we show differing amounts of awareness of the
mistake, i.e., whether we are paying attention to it, and thus, learning from
it, or not so much. And basically,
science people found that we tend to fall into two categories: those who have a “fixed” mindset (I’m
this inherently smart and that’s it) and those who have a “growth” mindset
(dang it I messed up, but now I’ll do better).
Experiment, part 1:
400 kids given tests. Afterward, each received one of two praises: Good effort or You’re smart.
“When kids were praised for their effort, nearly 90
percent chose the harder set of puzzles. However, when kids were praised for
their intelligence, most of them went for the easier test. What explains this
difference? According to Dweck, praising
kids for intelligence encourages them to “look” smart, which means that they shouldn’t
risk making a mistake.”
Experiment, part 2:
Same kids.
Much harder puzzles.
“The students who were initially praised for their effort
worked hard at figuring out the puzzles. Kids praised for their smarts, on the
other hand, were easily discouraged.
Their inevitable mistakes were seen as a sign of failure: Perhaps they really
weren’t so smart.”
Experiment, part 3:
Same kids.
Same tests as part 1.
“Good Effort” kids improved scores by 30 percent. “You’re Smart” kids dropped scores by
nearly 20 percent.
The author’s conclusion:
“The problem with praising kids for their innate
intelligence — the “smart” compliment — is that it misrepresents the psychological reality of education. It
encourages kids to avoid the most useful kind of learning activities, which is
when we learn from our mistakes. Because unless we experience the unpleasant
symptoms of being wrong — that surge of Pe activity a few hundred milliseconds
after the error, directing our attention to the very thing we’d like to ignore
— the mind will never revise its models. We’ll keep on making the same
mistakes, forsaking self-improvement for the sake of self-confidence. Samuel Beckett
had the right attitude: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail
again. Fail better.’”
I’m a “fixed” mindset and it’s all your
fault.