Effects on and consequences of responses to errors: Results from two experimental studies

Background

Interest in the potential of learning from errors to benefit innovation and organizational and personal growth is currently increasing. In practice, individuals frequently do not appear to learn spontaneously from errors and setbacks without support. Based on prior work, this paper considers antecedents and consequences of adaptive responses to errors.

Aims

Two experiments with undergraduate students aimed to identify the causal link between beliefs and maintained motivation and the adaptation of actions to the end of analysing and effectively correcting errors.

Samples and Methods

In Study 1 (N = 195, 72% female, M = 20.7 years, SD = 3.0), we experimentally manipulated learners' beliefs around the importance of errors to learning, after which they completed a 50-min learning session on research methods and statistics. In Study 2 (N = 67, 58% female, M = 21.8 years, SD = 3.99), we intertwined the manipulation more closely with the actual learning process by using prompts about adaptive responses to errors immediately after error feedback.

Results

In Study 1, those to whom we stressed the negative effects of errors showed significantly fewer adaptive action-related responses to errors, less persistence, and less use of metacognitive strategies after errors. In Study 2, we found significant positive effects on the learners' persistence, their metacognitive control, and effort investment.

Conclusions

Our results support and expand previous, mostly correlational, research findings on individuals' adaptive responses to errors.