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Positive illusory bias and the self-protective hypothesis in children with learning disabilities
1Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. nancy.health@mcgill.ca
Summary
Children with learning disabilities (LD) overestimate their performance. Positive feedback helps these students accurately predict their abilities, suggesting a self-protective bias.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
- Special Education
Background:
- Children with learning disabilities (LD) often exhibit discrepancies in academic performance and self-perception.
- Previous research suggests that overestimations of ability may serve a self-protective function in certain populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether overestimations of performance in children with LD are self-protective.
- To determine if positive feedback can reduce performance overestimations in children with LD.
Main Methods:
- Participants included children with and without LD (ages 10.6-13.5 years).
- Initial performance predictions on a spelling test were obtained.
- Participants were assigned to positive feedback or no-feedback conditions before a second prediction on an equivalent test.
Main Results:
- Children with LD showed a positive bias in performance predictions.
- Positive feedback significantly improved prediction accuracy in children with LD.
- Children without LD did not exhibit a performance bias or feedback effect.
Conclusions:
- The findings support the presence of a positive illusory bias in children with LD.
- The results indicate that this bias is self-protective and can be modulated by positive feedback.