Computer-based testing of reflective thinking: Executive control of erroneous performance in 9 to 12 year old children

摘要

Attention to errors was operationalized recently by the measure of post-failure reflectivity (Shafrir & Pascual-Leone, 1990). Post-failure reflective children spend long periods of time following the production of incorrect response, compared to the time they spend following the production of correct response. Shafrir and Pascual-Leone (1990) conceptualized post-failure reflectivity as an exploratory mental executive, a spontaneously activated "debugging" procedure that helps children reexamine and correct faulty internal plans. Researchers reported that children who show high executive control following the production of erroneous performance (post-failure reflective children) scored higher than post-failure impulsive children on an inference task, as well as on other measures of intellectual functioning and academic achievement (Shafrir & Pascual-Leone, 1990); that post-failure reflectivity generalized across tasks and across domains, and that post-failure reflective children were intentional learners (Shafrir, Ogilvie & Bryson, 1990, Experiment 2); and that those children used deep planning in constructing their action plans. In other studies, children with a reading disability were found to be significantly less post-failure reflective than normal controls (Shafrir, Ogilvie & Bryson, 1990, Experiment 1; Shafrir, Siegel & Chee, 1990). Shafrir, Ogilvie and Bryson (1990) claimed that attention to errors plays an important role in learning.