Abstract
Two brief intervention studies tested whether teaching students to mentally contrast a desired future with its present reality
resulted in better academic performance than teaching students to only think about the desired future. German elementary school
children (N = 49; Study 1) and US middle school children (N = 63; Study 2) from low-income neighborhoods who were taught mental contrasting achieved comparatively higher scores in learning
foreign language vocabulary words after 2 weeks or 4 days, respectively. Results have implications for research on the self-regulation
of commitment to solve assigned tasks in classroom settings, and for increasing academic performance in school children in
low-income areas.
resulted in better academic performance than teaching students to only think about the desired future. German elementary school
children (N = 49; Study 1) and US middle school children (N = 63; Study 2) from low-income neighborhoods who were taught mental contrasting achieved comparatively higher scores in learning
foreign language vocabulary words after 2 weeks or 4 days, respectively. Results have implications for research on the self-regulation
of commitment to solve assigned tasks in classroom settings, and for increasing academic performance in school children in
low-income areas.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-10
- DOI 10.1007/s11031-011-9222-0
- Authors
- Anton Gollwitzer, Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA
- Gabriele Oettingen, Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA
- Teri A. Kirby, Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Angela L. Duckworth, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Doris Mayer, Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- Journal Motivation and Emotion
- Online ISSN 1573-6644
- Print ISSN 0146-7239