Mental contrasting facilitates academic performance in school children

Gollwitzer, Anton; Oettingen, Gabriele; Kirby, Teri A.; Duckworth, Angela; Mayer, Doris

doi:10.1007/s11031-011-9222-0

Cited by 60 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Regarding perseverance, as pointed out above, mental contrasting under high expectations increases energization, but it also, improves rote learning (A. Gollwitzer, Oettingen, Kirby, Duckworth, & Mayer, 2011), heightens math and language grades (Oettingen, Hönig, & Gollwitzer, 2000, Study 1;Oettingen et al, 2001;Study 4), and fosters activities to reduce cigarette consumption (Oettingen, Mayer, & Thorpe, 2010).…”

Section: Mental Contrasting and Creative Performancementioning

confidence: 91%

Mental contrasting turns positive feedback on creative potential into successful performance

Oettingen

Marquardt

Gollwitzer

2012

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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Section: Mental Contrasting and Creative Performancementioning

confidence: 91%

Mental contrasting turns positive feedback on creative potential into successful performance

Oettingen

Marquardt

Gollwitzer

2012

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…the positive effects of MC on time management and academic performance (20,21). The effects are mediated by both cognitive and motivational mechanisms.…”

Section: Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Eight-minute self-regulation intervention raises educational attainment at scale in individualist but not collectivist cultures

Kizilcec

Cohen

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Academic credentials open up a wealth of opportunities. However, many people drop out of educational programs, such as community college and online courses. Prior research found that a brief selfregulation strategy can improve self-discipline and academic outcomes. Could this strategy support learners at large scale? Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) involves writing about positive outcomes associated with a goal, the obstacles to achieving it, and concrete if-then plans to overcome them. The strategy was developed in Western countries (United States, Germany) and appeals to individualist tendencies, which may reduce its efficacy in collectivist cultures such as India or China. We tested this hypothesis in two randomized controlled experiments in online courses (n = 17,963). Learners in individualist cultures were 32% (first experiment) and 15% (second experiment) more likely to complete the course following the MCII intervention than a control activity. In contrast, learners in collectivist cultures were unaffected by MCII. Natural language processing of written responses revealed that MCII was effective when a learner's primary obstacle was predictable and surmountable, such as everyday work or family obligations but not a practical constraint (e.g., Internet access) or a lack of time. By revealing heterogeneity in MCII's effectiveness, this research advances theory on self-regulation and illuminates how even highly efficacious interventions may be culturally bounded in their effects. motivation | goal pursuit | culture | education | field experiment

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“…In one study by Gollwitzer et al (2011) a group of third graders were told to imagine a candy prize they would receive if they finished a language assignment and then to imagine several of their own behaviors that could prevent them from winning the award. A second group of students was instructed only to fantasize about winning the prize.…”

Section: Implications Of the Stockdale Paradoxmentioning

confidence: 99%