Abstract
Rumination is a trait response to blocked goals that can have positive or negative outcomes for goal resolution depending on where attention is focused. Whereas “moody brooding” on affective states may be maladaptive, especially for females, “reflective pondering” on concrete strategies for problem solving may be more adaptive. In the context of a challenging general knowledge test, we examined how Brooding and Reflection rumination styles predicted students’ subjective and event-related responses (ERPs) to negative feedback, as well as use of this feedback to rebound from failure on a later surprise retest. For females only, Brooding predicted unpleasant feelings after failure as the task progressed. It also predicted enhanced attention to errors through both bottom-up and top-down processes, as indexed by increased early (400–600 ms) and later (600–1000 ms) late positive potentials (LPP), respectively. Reflection, despite increasing females’ initial attention to negative feedback (i.e., early LPP), as well as both genders’ recurring negative thoughts, did not result in sustained top-down attention (i.e., late LPP) or enhanced negative feelings toward errors. Reflection also facilitated rebound from failure in both genders, although Brooding did not hinder it. Implications of these gender and time-related rumination effects for learning in challenging academic situations are discussed.
Highlights
Failing to achieve our goals can be disappointing at best, and devastating at worst
Because our study focuses on the neural and behavioral response to negative feedback, our primary Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS) analyses focused on the FRNneg and, in order to address the downward trend of both feedback-related negativity (FRN) waveforms, the FRN difference wave (FRNdiff) (i.e., FRNnegFRNpos )
Our conceptual approach was guided by Martin and Tesser’s Control Theory [8,9], which proposes that the rumination that arises in response to blocked goals can either hurt or help goal-oriented processing depending on whether attention is directed toward active, concrete means for problem solving (Reflection) or situated on one’s mood and problem history (Brooding)
Summary
Failing to achieve our goals can be disappointing at best, and devastating at worst. For some individuals, failure elicits a particular flurry of negative thoughts and feelings that come to monopolize their attention at the expense of other goal-relevant information. Given that the ability to learn and rebound from failure is a key predictor of life-long success (e.g., [1,2]), it is important to understand how our cognition and emotions interact to influence goal-directed behaviors such as the ability to overcome failure (e.g., [3,4]). We use both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures to examine how rumination, a cognitive response to negative mood states, stressful situations, or adverse life events [5], impacts the response to negative feedback and the ability to effectively learn from it. Ruminators often claim that this style of thinking helps them to down-regulate unwanted emotions and arrive at useful insight for solving problems, instead, it often increases negative affect and impairs problem solving [7].
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