Search for: All records

To determine their academic strengths and weaknesses, students compare their own performance across domains (e.g., math versus English), a process referred to as dimensional comparisons. For example, individuals’ higher-scoring English performance may negatively affect their math motivational beliefs (competence self-concepts and intrinsic values), resulting in favoritism toward English. Students’ motivation can also be affected by praise from adults. However, praise in one domain (e.g., English) may have unexpected negative effects on motivation in the contrasting domain (e.g., math) through dimensional comparisons. We experimentally investigated the impact of receiving praise in only one domain on students’ domain-specific motivational beliefs. We hypothesized that students would have higher motivational beliefs in the praised domain and lower motivational beliefs in the non-praised domain compared to students who received no praise. Seventh-to-9th-graders (10-15-year-olds; N=108; 46 girls; 92 living in the U.S.; 84.8% White, 2.9% Asian or Asian American, 2.9% Black or African American, 9.5% multiple races; parents’ education range: 13-18 years) showed heightened verbal competence self-concepts after receiving praise on either verbal or math performance. College students (first-to-5th-year; N=109; 89 females; 105 living in the U.S.; 58.9% White, 21.5% Asian or Asian American, 10.3% Black or African American, 5.6% multiple races, 3.7% other races) showed higher verbal intrinsic values after receiving praise on verbal performance. Results supported positive effects of praise in the verbal domain only and were inconsistent with the predicted negative effects on the non-praised domain. We suggest that students’ verbal motivational beliefs are more malleable than math beliefs when receiving disproportionate praise. 

Verbal labels for math concepts influence multiple aspects of math learning. In this study, we examined the influence of point labels (e.g., .42 as “point four two”), decomposed labels (e.g., “four tenths and two hundredths”), and common-unit labels (e.g., “forty-two hundredths”) on children’s processing and representation of decimal magnitudes. We randomly assigned 162 5th- and 6th-graders to briefly learn decomposed, common-unit, or point labels. Children then completed measures of decimal magnitude processing and representation. We found that the place-value labels (i.e., decomposed and common-unit labels) each showed unique advantages in reducing the whole-number bias, and common-unit labels also reduced componential processing. No difference was found in the ratio effect – which served as an index of the precision of decimal magnitude representation - among children from the three conditions. These findings add to our understanding of the role of verbal labels in math learning and have important implications for instructional practices.