Effects of making errors in learning a foreign language

ABSTRACT

Kornell, Hays, and Bjork ([2009]. Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 989–998) showed that incorrect guesses do not necessarily harm and might even improve the retention of information on a subsequent test. We sought to replicate the finding using educationally relevant stimuli. In two experiments, our participants either translated sentences in a foreign language receiving immediate feedback (errorful condition), or copied and studied the correct translation (errorless condition). After this training phase, a final test with the same sentences showed that translating sentences wrongly during training did not lower the accuracy of the errorful as compared to the errorless condition. Overall there was evidence that errorful training produced superior learning of the meaning and grammar of the foreign language sentences. The results support the idea that search processes activate a greater network of related knowledge in the errorful than in the errorless condition.     

Social cognitive predictors of peer acceptance at age 5 and the moderating effects of gender

In this study we examined the effects of social intelligence, empathy, verbal ability and appearance‐reality distinction on the level of peer acceptance, as well as the moderating role of gender. Participants were 98 five‐year‐old children (43 boys and 55 girls; mean age 5 years 3 months for boys and girls). Our results showed a main effect of social intelligence on peer acceptance, as well as several other effects that were moderated by gender: a significant and positive effect of verbal ability on social acceptance was found for boys; appearance‐reality distinction was found to have a positive effect on social acceptance in the case of girls; and although empathy had a significant positive effect on social acceptance for both boys and girls, this effect was more pronounced among boys. Our results suggest that abilities promoting peer acceptance are different for boys and girls.     

Longitudinal Relationships Between Positive Affect,Loneliness, and Suicide Ideation: Age‐Specific Factors in a General Population

The aims of this study were to analyze whether positive and negative affect, social support, and loneliness are factors longitudinally related to suicide ideation in the general population in different age groups. A total of 2,392 individuals from a nationally representative sample of the Spanish general population were evaluated in 2011–2012 and in 2014–2015. After including relevant control variables in the analyses, lower positive affect was prospectively related to ideation in 18‐ to 59‐year‐old individuals, whereas feelings of loneliness were related to ideation in 60‐year‐and‐older individuals. Social support was not associated with suicide ideation in any age group. These results are in line with the need for age‐tailored suicide prevention programs. The present findings might also suggest that health care professionals should consider feelings of loneliness rather than social support to assess the presence of suicide ideation in older people.