Makes one wonder if this effect represents some form of denal of incompetence and is related to other research on "raising smart children." In that study they noted that:
1. Many people assume that superior intelligence or ability is a key to success. But more than three decades of research shows that an overemphasis on intellect or talent—and the implication that such traits are innate and fixed—leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn.
2. Teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, produces high achievers in school and in life.
This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 01 Jan 2008, by Bill H.
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01 Jan 08
Bill HPeople tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make
unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration
to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.-
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Because people usually choose what they think is the most reasonable and optimal option (Metcalfe, 1998), the failure to recognize that one has performed poorly will instead leave one to assume that one has performed well. As a result, the incompetent will tend to grossly overestimate their skills and abilities. -
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Further to the note below, Wikipedia includes in the definition of metacognitive "maintaining motivation to see a task to completion is also a metacognitive skill" which does sound related.
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These findings suggest that unaccomplished individuals do not possess the degree of metacognitive skills necessary for accurate self-assessment that their more accomplished counterparts possess. -
It follows that if one is less skilled then one has a less of a foundation to make such accurate judgements. However, the question is (if they do) why do people tend to come to higher estimates of their abilities rather than more conservative estimates? Further, if one is considered epert in one field do they over estimate their abilities in fields outside their expertise?
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training packet was so successful that those who had originally scored in the bottom quartile were just as accurate in monitoring their test performance as were those -
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but they were considerably more calibrated overall and were no longer miscalibrated with respect to their raw test score, -
So, training helped?
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Public Stiky Notes
1. Many people assume that superior intelligence or ability is a key to success. But more than three decades of research shows that an overemphasis on intellect or talent—and the implication that such traits are innate and fixed—leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn.
2. Teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, produces high achievers in school and in life.
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