FROM PREVENTION TO PROMOTION: LEARNING FROM DELIBERATE ERRORS

Abstract

How can we strategically and systematically learn from our errors? This thesis developed a Prevention–Permission–Promotion (3P) framework of approaches to errors in learning, and applied it to review current psychological research. Challenging the tradition of errors, I proposed that deliberately committing and correcting errors produces superior learning than avoiding them, even when we already know the correct answers—a counterintuitive phenomenon I termed the “derring effect”. Across six experiments, I show that deliberate erring reliably boosts not only knowledge retention, but also higher order knowledge application. The derring effect generalized across verbal and visual materials, as well as spelling and conceptual errors, with error correction yielding an additional benefit. Moreover, the derring effect was not fully attributable to generation or elaboration, but stemmed in part from enhanced target processing specific to having first deliberately erred. Overall, deliberate error commission and correction is a powerful strategy to enhance learning.