Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research benefits of failure/cognitive reframing

http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/kids/art3647.html

"To see if making failure less scary for kids would help them achieve, a new study had sixth graders try to solve math problems that were too difficult for them. Afterwards, half of the kids were told that the problems were very difficult and that failure is common. The other half was asked how they tried to solve the problems.

The children were then given a test of working memory, which is known to predict academic performance: the group who’d been told it was “OK” to fail did much better on the tests than the kids who were not supported in this way."

paper available here: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xge/141/4/610.html

From the paper: "reframing the metacognitive interpretation of difficulty brings
cognitive gain in situations where available resources are scarce.
Interestingly, children’s academic level, gender, and SES did not
moderate these cognitive gains.1"

@ ultramarina - is that particular 'test of working memory' predictive of IQ?

If so, there are implications related to IQ (or just IQ tests? :)) and nature vs. nurture.

(I know that at least some IQ tests test 'working memory' but of course the meaning may be different there and in the article.)