Andrei Cimpian, assistant professor of psychology, and two of his colleagues performed a study on how children between the ages of four and seven perform after hearing positive messages about their abilities last year. The results of the experiment are likely to be used by future educators, said Alexander Parker, a graduate student in Elementary Education and a former student of Cimpian.

To test their theory, they used two different experiments in his study. The first experiment used 48 children between the ages of four and five years old and asked them to draw circles inside of a variety of different shapes. The experimenter also timed the child and stopped each child after twelve circles were drawn. 

Before the child began drawing any circles, the experimenter told the child that his or her gender was better at the task — for example, stating, “Boys are really good at this game” — or the experimenter used an individual condition, in which children were told “there’s a boy (or girl) who is really good at this game.” 

The gender of these statements always aligned with the child’s own gender. The results, as Cimpian and his colleagues predicted, showed that the children who were told their entire gender performed better actually performed slower than those who were told only one individual of their gender exceeded at the task.

The second experiment was implemented to “maximize the generalizability of the findings of experiment 1,”according to the study. 

Cimpian and his colleagues chose to “expand the age range of participants to include six and seven year olds.”They also performed a different task, although it shared many similar characteristics to the first, and added one more category, “in which children heard no information about who was good at the activity.” 

The results showed that the children who were told that their particular category performed the best actually had the slowest time on the task, and those who were told nothing at all completed the task fastest.

Parker said in an email that he thinks children should be complimented, but “without bringing other students into the dynamic.” 

Parker said he believes these results would likely be the same for all ages. He said motivation would only decrease “if we felt we were better (at a task) than most people.”

The results of the study not only apply to classroom teaching methods, but are also likely to apply to other activities and areas of learning. 

Mark Metzger, a former school board member of District 204 and lawyer, said he was not surprised by the findings of this study. He said the results do not only apply to children, but most likely adults as well. 

Metzger cited a study conducted by Dan Ariely, professor of Psychology at Duke University, in which Ariely gave two types of beer — either Budweiser or Samuel Adams and the original Massachusetts Institute of Technology brew containing balsamic vinegar — to experiment participants. In the blind taste test, when participants were told nothing about either choice, the majority preferred the MIT brew, but when they were told prior to tasting that the brew contained vinegar, the majority said the other option tasted better.

Metzger said based on these two studies, whether the individual is performing a simple task in kindergarten or drinking at a bar, these preconceived notions will most likely impact performance.

Sophia can be reached at [email protected].