title: Mind your errors: evidence for a neural mechanism linking growth mind-set to adaptive posterror adjustments.
abstract: How well people bounce back from mistakes depends on their beliefs about learning and intelligence. For individuals with a growth mind-set, who believe intelligence develops through effort, mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn and improve. For individuals with a fixed mind-set, who believe intelligence is a stable characteristic, mistakes indicate lack of ability. We examined performance-monitoring event-related potentials (ERPs) to probe the neural mechanisms underlying these different reactions to mistakes. Findings revealed that a growth mind-set was associated with enhancement of the error positivity component (Pe), which reflects awareness of and allocation of attention to mistakes. More growth-minded individuals also showed superior accuracy after mistakes compared with individuals endorsing a more fixed mind-set. It is critical to note that Pe amplitude mediated the relationship between mind-set and posterror accuracy. These results suggest that neural mechanisms indexing on-line awareness of and attention to mistakes are intimately involved in growth-minded individuals' ability to rebound from mistakes.
authors: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. jmoser@msu.edu
authors: Jason S
authors: JS
authors: Moser
authors: Hans S
authors: HS
authors: Schroder
authors: Carrie
authors: C
authors: Heeter
authors: Tim P
authors: TP
authors: Moran
authors: Yu-Hao
authors: YH
authors: Lee
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001290:Attitude; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult