Work

Learning in the face of failure: The benefit of autistic traits

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This study aims to explore how learning performance differs for non-diagnosed adults with high and low levels of autistic traits (ATs) for positive versus negative feedback delivered via social and nonsocial stimuli. College student participants were tested on their ability to learn novel words (i.e., Korean characters) in a simple memory experiment incorporating either positive or negative feedback. A 2 (positive feedback vs. negative feedback) × 2 (ATs: high vs. Low) between-subject design was adopted in both Experiments 1 and 2. Social feedback stimuli were used in Experiment 1 and nonsocial feedback stimuli were used in Experiment 2. The results revealed that individuals with both high and low levels of ATs showed learning for both types of feedback (success and failure) using social and nonsocial stimuli (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). However, individuals with low levels of ATs learned less from failure than from success, whereas individuals with high levels of ATs showed equivalent learning for failure and success, for both social and nonsocial stimuli. These results suggest that for college students, a benefit of having high levels of ATs is increased resilience and an ability to continue to learn in the face of failure.

Source: British Journal of Psychology

DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12786

Authors: Xiujun Li, Christopher M. Conway, Shiyi Yin, Xueping Bai, Dezhen Xu

Institutions: Shanghai Normal University, University of Warwick, Grinnell College, Henan University, Shanghai Polytechnic University

Language: English

Topic: Autism Spectrum Disorder Research

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: China Scholarship Council