Students’ Mindsets for Learning and Their Neural Underpinnings

It has been shown that individuals with a growth mindset for learning see mistakes as opportunities to learn and improve, whereas for fixed-minded individuals mistakes indicate lack of ability. Earlier empirical research on mindsets includes both quantitative surveys and qualitative approaches with observations and stimulated recall method. During performance monitoring it is possible to probe event-related brain potentials (ERPs), enabling the investigation of the neural basis of students’ different reactions to mistakes. ERP studies have shown that growth mindset is associated with an enhancement of the error positivity (Pe), an ERP reflecting awareness of and attention allocation to mistakes. More growth-minded individuals also show superior accuracy after mistakes compared to those endorsing more of a fixed mindset. Most importantly, Pe amplitude mediates the relationship between mindset and post-error accuracy. These results suggest that neural activity indexing online awareness of and attention to mistakes is intimately involved in growth-minded individuals’ ability to rebound from mistakes. In this article we review and connect educational, psychological and neuroscientific points of view to investigate the role of mindsets related to learning.