Category: Psychology

Was Anders Ericsson (partially) right after all? A new chess study reopens the deliberate practice debate

Whenever I come across the words chess and practice hours in a paper, I immediately think of the late Anders Ericsson. Chances are, many readers will think of Malcolm Gladwell instead. That is hardly surprising as Gladwell made the idea famous in his book ‘Outliers’. The problem is that he simplified Ericsson’s work beyond recognition… Read More Was Anders Ericsson (partially) right after all? A new chess study reopens the deliberate practice debate

PedroLeave a comment

Do Generational Differences at Work Really Exist?

Young people no longer want to work. Or is it that they study less because they are working too much? That is also possible. Or perhaps they are simply taking better care of themselves and their work-life balance. Or perhaps not. Many clichés circulate about these themes, but what do the hard data say? I… Read More Do Generational Differences at Work Really Exist?

PedroLeave a comment

What We Get Wrong About IQ And Intelligence

We’ve written about this before in More Urban Myths about Learning and Education and The Psychology of Great Teaching, but I keep being struck by how often the same misconceptions about intelligence resurface. Then again, perhaps that’s not surprising. Intelligence and intelligence research have been provoking strong reactions for well over a century, something I have… Read More What We Get Wrong About IQ And Intelligence

PedroLeave a comment

Does competition increase educational inequality? A new study offers a surprising answer.

When I read this paper on Saturday, it genuinely made me stop and think. Nathalie Aerts, Thijs Bol and Eddie Brummelman started from a theory that has become increasingly influential over the past few years. According to the Social Class–Academic Context Mismatch theory, competitive school environments should disadvantage students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. That was… Read More Does competition increase educational inequality? A new study offers a surprising answer.

PedroLeave a comment

Do We Actually Learn Better From Mistakes?

Learning from mistakes is a topic that has come up several times on this blog. A new study in the Journal of Educational Psychology once again shows that the answer is more nuanced than a simple yes-or-no. What did you expect? But keep reading, because the practical implications are more interesting than you might think.… Read More Do We Actually Learn Better From Mistakes?

PedroLeave a comment

Follow-up: Rising Perfectionism and Declining School Performance? They Are Not Necessarily Contradictory

After my previous blog about the rise in perfectionism, I received the same question several times: how does that fit with the declining school performance we are seeing in many countries? If young people are becoming increasingly perfectionistic, shouldn’t they actually be performing better? It sounds logical, but it is based on a misunderstanding. Perfectionism… Read More Follow-up: Rising Perfectionism and Declining School Performance? They Are Not Necessarily Contradictory

PedroLeave a comment

Could Rising Perfectionism Be Another Piece of the Youth Mental Health Puzzle?

Why are more and more young people struggling with mental health issues? It is a question that recurs regularly in the media, in policy discussions, in research, and on this blog. My message so far has been that the answer is rarely simple or straightforward. Social media, sleep deprivation, academic pressure, economic uncertainty, changing expectations,… Read More Could Rising Perfectionism Be Another Piece of the Youth Mental Health Puzzle?

Pedro1 Comment

Does AI have an attention problem?

In recent years, I have regularly heard that AI systems work with attention. It is no coincidence that this word reappears in the title of the famous article that made the current generation of language models possible: Attention is All You Need, a paper published 9 years ago today. But how comparable is that attention actually to human… Read More Does AI have an attention problem?

PedroLeave a comment

Does Motivation Depend More on Structure Than Autonomy?

If you follow the educational literature on motivation, you might easily come away with the impression that motivation primarily arises when students experience autonomy. Give them choices. Let them set their own goals. Provide space for their own interests. That idea has had a great deal of influence over the past decades, even though Ryan… Read More Does Motivation Depend More on Structure Than Autonomy?

PedroLeave a comment

Learning from mistakes changes with age

We all make mistakes. No, really. When we calculate something, write an email, or have a conversation with someone. You might think you know the right answer, only to find out you were wrong after all. But what actually happens after we make a mistake? And does that change as we get older and perhaps… Read More Learning from mistakes changes with age

PedroLeave a comment