ERIC Number: EJ1250187
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-May
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1467-7687
EISSN: N/A
Being Proven Wrong Elicits Learning in Children -- But Only in Those with Higher Executive Function Skills
Developmental Science, v23 n3 e12916 May 2020
This study investigated whether prompting children to generate predictions about an outcome facilitates activation of prior knowledge and improves belief revision. 51 children aged 9-12 were tested on two experimental tasks in which generating a prediction was compared to closely matched control conditions, as well as on a test of executive functions (EF). In Experiment 1, we showed that children exhibited a pupillary surprise response to events that they had predicted incorrectly, hypothesized to reflect the transient release of noradrenaline in response to cognitive conflict. However, children's surprise response was not associated with better belief revision, in contrast to a previous study involving adults. Experiment 2 revealed that, while generating predictions helped children activate their prior knowledge, only those with better inhibitory control skills learned from incorrectly predicted outcomes. Together, these results suggest that good inhibitory control skills are needed for learning through cognitive conflict. Thus, generating predictions benefits learning -- but only among children with sufficient EF capacities to harness surprise for revising their beliefs.
Descriptors: Prior Learning, Preadolescents, Executive Function, Cognitive Ability, Prompting, Prediction, Beliefs, Physiology, Responses, Inhibition, Self Control, Cognitive Processes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A