UC Santa Cruz

Existing research differentiates beliefs about success and intelligence into two categories: fixed and growth mindset. This popular categorical view aims to account for differences in performance, success and failure, but does not address the influences of task parameters. To better explain nuanced performance differences as a result of individual beliefs and task parameters, the current set of experiments proposes the Strategic Mindset Model as an alternative. This model posits that (1) fixed mindsets may be adaptive in some circumstances, (2) mindset interacts with task parameters to influence performance and (3) that mindset is malleable and can be influenced by experience. The experiments presented here provide evidence for all three tenets of the Strategic Mindset Model, suggesting that mindset may be a strategic choice that exists on a continuum, and that participants may select a degree of fixed or growth orientation dependent on task parameters and objectives. Results from these experiments call into question some of the assumptions made in Mindset Theory, and may be used in practice by educators, coaches, and researchers to elicit improved performance in the face of varying task parameters.