Have we underestimated the facilitative effects of failure?

Abstract
Learned helplessness (i.e., perceived independence between a response and its consequences, attributed to previous failures to control or avoid adversive events) was investigated in children and adults. Percentage of failure was manipulated and subsequent performance on a parallel task was used as a dependent variable. The anticipated effect of debilitating performance occurred only under the 100% failure condition. There was no significant difference between the 70% and 40% failure conditions with children or between the 88% and 22% failure with adults. The learned helplessness phenomenon may be greatly modified by failure levels of less than 100%. Underestimation and underinvestigation of the facilitative effects of more moderate levels of failure was discussed.

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