ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (12): 1947-1960.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2024.01947

• Conceptual Framework •     Next Articles

The behavioral and neural response patterns of growth mindset affecting learning process: A perspective from self-regulation learning theory

JIA Xiaoyu1(), LI Ping2, LI Weijian3   

  1. 1College of Teacher Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
    2School of Education Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou 510665, China
    3School of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321000, China
  • Received:2024-04-10 Online:2024-12-15 Published:2024-09-24
  • Contact: JIA Xiaoyu E-mail:xiaoyujia@swu.edu.cn

Abstract:

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) identifies growth mindset as a crucial predictor of adolescents' academic achievement and social adaptation. Cultivating a growth mindset among adolescents is seen as a transformative change in reshaping the educational landscape and has become a significant topic in education. Recent large-scale studies have shown that growth mindset interventions enhance adolescents' academic performance and alleviate their stress, while several meta-analyses have reported minimal effects of such interventions on academic performance. Evaluating the true effectiveness of growth mindset interventions in improving adolescents' academic performance remains a challenging and cutting-edge issue in this field.

Existing research has overly focused on learning outcomes, using academic performance as the primary measure of growth mindset and its intervention effects, while neglecting the behavioral aspects of the learning process. This oversight has obscured valuable assessment information, contributing to the current controversy. Therefore, this study explores the "behavioral and neural response patterns of how growth mindset influences the learning process," aiming to shift and innovate research perspectives, paradigms, and metrics in the following ways: (1) Process-Oriented Focus: This study emphasizes the process-oriented nature of learning and explores the effects of growth mindset and its interventions on various aspects of the learning process; (2) Metacognitive Framework: Based on self-regulated learning theory, this study adopts a metacognitive framework within a self-regulated learning paradigm to characterize the interactive patterns between growth mindset, motivation, metacognition, and self-regulated learning behaviors, thereby overcoming the limitations of previous research content and methods based on the social cognitive theory of motivation; (3) Comprehensive Assessment Tools: By constructing and integrating behavioral indicators, neural activity indicators, and brain plasticity indicators that reflect the influence of growth mindset on the learning process, this study provides multi-faceted assessment tools for scientifically evaluating the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions. This approach aims to mitigate the assessment bias caused by relying solely on learning outcome indicators.

Learning is a continuously self-regulated process. This study addresses the key scientific question of whether growth mindset influences the learning process by utilizing a self-regulated learning paradigm within a metacognitive framework. Through behavioral experiments, event-related potentials (ERP), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments, the study reveals the behavioral and neural response patterns influenced by growth mindset in feedback learning contexts. In the study 1, we use a self-regulated learning paradigm to examine whether growth mindset influences behavioral performance in learning processes within task/ability feedback contexts, reflecting the effects of growth mindset and feedback on the learning process through behavioral indicators. In the study 2, ERP technology is employed to investigate whether growth mindset influences brain neural signals during the learning process within task/ability feedback contexts, providing objective neural evidence of the influence of growth mindset and feedback on the learning process. In the study 3, we aim to examine whether, after implicit activation (short-term intervention) of a growth mindset in individuals with a fixed mindset within a laboratory setting, their behavioral performance and neural activity during the feedback learning process converge with those of individuals with a growth mindset. Additionally, using fMRI technology, the study explores whether long-term growth mindset interventions can significantly alter gray matter volume in key brain regions and the connectivity strength between large-scale networks, and whether the latter mediates the relationship between growth mindset interventions and academic performance. This examination reveals the brain plasticity mechanisms by which growth mindset interventions influence feedback learning processes and outcomes.

This study systematically explores the behavioral and neural response patterns influenced by growth mindset in the learning process, attempting to construct a theoretical framework for how growth mindset affects the learning process. Not only does it advance research on this topic from ongoing controversy towards greater clarity, but it also responds to the educational reform call for "strengthening process evaluation" in the new era. As brain plasticity-based growth mindset cultivation becomes widely applied in educational practice, clarifying the impact of growth mindset and its interventions on neural activity and brain plasticity during the learning process can provide a basis for accurately formulating and evaluating growth mindset cultivation programs for adolescents, promoting the scientific and standardized implementation of such programs. Moreover, integrating adolescents' growth mindset cultivation into supportive classroom feedback contexts is a direction that future educational practice could consider.

Key words: growth mindset, self-regulation learning, metacognitive monitoring and control, feedback, neural response patterns

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