Explore your brain: A randomized controlled trial into the effectiveness of a growth mindset intervention with psychosocial and psychophysiological components.

Abstract

Although past research demonstrated growth mindset interventions to improve school outcomes, effects were small. This may be due to the theoretical nature of psychosocial techniques (e.g., reading about brain plasticity), which may not be optimally convincing for students. To address this issue and improve effectiveness, we developed a growth mindset intervention, which combined psychosocial and psychophysiological components. The latter adds a convincing experience of influencing one's own brain activity, using mobile electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback, emphasizing the controllable and malleable nature of one's brain. In this randomized controlled trial (RCT), twenty high-school classes (N=439) were randomized to either the active control condition (no mindset messaging) or our newly developed growth mindset intervention condition (4 × 50 min). School outcomes (pre, post, 1-year follow-up) were analysed with Linear Mixed Models (LMM: variable-oriented) and Latent Transition Analysis (LTA: person-oriented). LMM: students in the growth mindset intervention reported increased growth mindset directly after the intervention (post, d=.38) and at 1-year follow-up (d=.25) and demonstrated a protective effect against deterioration of math grades at 1-year follow-up (d=.36), compared to controls. LTA: we identified three mindset profiles (Fixed, Growth competitive, Growth non-competitive), with more frequent transitions from fixed to one of the growth mindset profiles at 1-year follow-up for students in the growth mindset intervention compared to controls (OR 2.58-2.68). Compared to previous studies, we found relatively large effects of our intervention on growth mindset and math grades, which may be attributable to synergetic effects of psychosocial and psychophysiological (neurofeedback) components. The person-oriented approach demonstrated more holistic effects, involving multiple motivational constructs.