Date of Submission

Spring 2014

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Psychology

Project Advisor 1

Kristin Lane

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Americans, often starting from middle school and persisting throughout life, tend to dislike and avoid mathematics and science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) fields. In the current study, participants solved a series of anagrams designed to prime either academic success or failure, and indicated the extent to which they ascribed to a growth mindset (believing one's abilities can change throughout time) or a fixed mindset (believing one's abilities are stable throughout time). A 2 (priming condition) x 2 (mindset) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) design tested the joint influences of priming and mindset on mathematics performance. Surprisingly, participants primed with notions of failure performed marginally better than those primed with notions of success. Mindset was not significantly related to participants' math performance and did not interact with the priming condition.

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On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
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