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    • In the second study Moser et al

    2018-10-29

    In the second study, Moser et al. (2011) examined ERPs elicited immediately after the response in a very simple two-choice flanker task among college students. Two well-known and dissociable ERPs are elicited after errors in such tasks − the error-related negativity (ERN; Gehring et al., 1993) and error positivity (Pe; Overbeek et al., 2005). The ERN is a frontocentrally maximal ERP localized to anterior cingulate cortex (Herrmann et al., 2004), peaks within 50–150ms post-response, and is associated with immediate, perhaps unconscious and automatic error-correction processes (Gehring et al., 2012; Yeung and Summerfield, 2012). The Pe, in contrast, is more broadly distributed across centroparietal electrode sites, localized to numerous bace inhibitor regions including anterior cingulate, anterior insula, and parietal cortex (Herrmann et al., 2004; Ullsperger et al., 2010), reaches its maximum between 200 and 500ms after errors, and has been linked with conscious error awareness and attention allocation to errors (O’Connell et al., 2007; Overbeek et al., 2005; Ullsperger et al., 2010; Wessell et al., 2011). Moser et al. (2011) found that endorsement of the growth mindset was associated with greater amplitude of the Pe, but was unrelated to the ERN. That study also found that growth mindset endorsement predicted higher accuracy after mistakes (i.e., post-error accuracy) and that Pe amplitude mediated the relationship between growth mindset and post-error accuracy. In other words, processes indexed by the Pe – such as attention allocation to errors – explained growth-minded individuals’ superior post-error performance. These results extended previous self-report and behavioral studies, as they demonstrated a relation between mindset and moment-by-moment neural processes occurring within half of a second of making a mistake. Together, the two ERP studies indicate that, in addition to dissociations in self-reported attributions, goals, and behaviors, mindsets are also dissociated by the neurocognitive correlates of feedback and error monitoring. The two studies paint a rather similar picture: mindsets were not related to the initial reaction to failure (i.e., feedback-related negativity and response-locked ERN), but they were linked to the later processing which may be reflective of attention allocation (sustained left temporal negativity and Pe). It is interesting to consider these results in the context of Diener and Dweck’s (1978, 1980) finding of helpless children who diverted their attention away from the task following failure such that the Pe may reflect this attentional disengagement as early as 250ms following an error and may explain subsequent post-error performance. Critically, however, both ERP studies were conducted with undergraduate samples consisting of students with many years of experience in formal educational settings. Although mindsets are still academically relevant for students in this age range (Hong et al., 1999; Yeager et al., 2016), the studies offer no insights into how these mechanisms act for children who are just beginning to transition into formal school settings. This is an important gap in the literature for at least two reasons. First, this transition is characterized by a plethora of opportunities for both new learning and failure experiences. Understanding whether similar or different neural mechanisms are relevant for mindsets in this younger age range may be especially useful given that ion is during these difficult transitions that mindsets have their most noticeable impact on academic achievement (Blackwell et al., 2007; Dweck, 1999; Dweck et al., 1995; Yeager et al., 2014). Second, functioning during the transition to school and early elementary years is thought to “set the stage” for later achievement and experience with school settings (Duncan et al., 2007). This is reflected in the abundant efforts to identify and assist students early on in a preventative fashion (e.g., Blair, 2002). It is possible that neural mechanisms associated with errors may precede children’s ability to articulate how they feel about mistakes – providing novel insights into the error monitoring process that may have previously been missed.