Table_1_Mindsets and Neural Mechanisms of Automatic Reactions to Negative Feedback in Mathematics in Elementary School Students.docx

Neuroscientific research regarding mindsets is so far scarce, especially among children. Moreover, even though research indicates the importance of domain specificity of mindsets, this has not yet been investigated in neuroscientific studies regarding implicit beliefs. The purpose of this study was to examine general intelligence and math ability mindsets and their relations to automatic reactions to negative feedback in mathematics in the Finnish elementary school context. For this, event-related potentials of 97 elementary school students were measured during the completion of an age-appropriate math task, where the participants received performance-relevant feedback throughout the task. Higher growth mindset was marginally associated with a larger P300 response and significantly associated with a smaller later peaking negative-going waveform. Moreover, with the domain-specific experimental setting, we found a higher growth mindset regarding math ability, but not general intelligence, to be associated with these brain responses elicited by negative feedback regarding errors in math. This suggests that it might be important to address domain-specific and even academic-domain-specific beliefs in addition to general mindsets in research and practice.

迄今为止，有关思维模式的神经科学研究仍较为匮乏，针对儿童群体的相关研究尤为不足。此外，尽管已有研究表明思维模式的领域特异性具有重要意义，但针对内隐信念的神经科学研究尚未涉足这一方向。
本研究旨在探究芬兰小学情境下的一般智力思维模式与数学能力思维模式，及其与数学领域中个体对负面反馈的自动化反应之间的关联。为此，本研究在97名小学生完成符合年龄适配的数学任务期间，对其事件相关电位（event-related potentials, ERP）进行了采集，实验全程会向参与者提供与任务表现相关的反馈。
更高的成长型思维模式（growth mindset）与更大的P300反应呈边际显著相关，且与峰值延迟的负向脑电波形振幅显著更小。此外，通过领域特异性实验范式，本研究发现，针对数学能力的成长型思维模式（而非一般智力思维模式），与数学错误相关的负面反馈所诱发的上述脑电反应存在显著关联。
该结果提示，在研究与实践场景中，除了关注一般性思维模式外，针对领域特异性乃至学术领域特异性的信念开展探讨或具有重要价值。