Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Self-Serving Bias01:29

Self-Serving Bias

Self-serving bias is a cognitive phenomenon in which individuals attribute positive outcomes to internal factors such as their abilities, intelligence, or effort while attributing negative outcomes to external circumstances. This cognitive distortion helps maintain self-esteem but can also impede objective self-assessment.Theoretical Explanations of Self-Serving BiasTwo primary theories explain the self-serving bias: the cognitive explanation and the motivational explanation.The cognitive...
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification03:00

Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification

Social psychologists have documented that feeling good about ourselves and maintaining positive self-esteem is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Tavris & Aronson, 2008). In the United States, members of the predominant culture typically think very highly of themselves and view themselves as good people who are above average on many desirable traits (Ehrlinger, Gilovich, & Ross, 2005). Often, our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs are affected when we experience a threat to our...
Fundamental Attribution Error01:14

Fundamental Attribution Error

According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is called the fundamental attribution...
Self-Schemas02:16

Self-Schemas

In general, a schema is a mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts (Bartlett, 1932). There are many different types of schemata, and they all have one thing in common: schemata are a method of organizing information that allows the brain to work more efficiently. When a schema is activated, the brain makes immediate assumptions about the person or object being observed.
Strategies of Self-Presentation II: Self-Verification01:17

Strategies of Self-Presentation II: Self-Verification

Self-verification is a fundamental psychological drive wherein individuals seek affirmation of their self-concept from others, striving for consistency between their internal self-view and external perceptions. This drive operates even when the self-concept is negative, influencing interpersonal behavior and feedback preferences in complex and often counterintuitive ways. Unlike the self-enhancement motive, which seeks positive evaluations, self-verification prioritizes coherence and...
Introspection01:29

Introspection

Introspection, long upheld as a reliable route to self-knowledge, involves examining one's thoughts, emotions, and mental processes. It underpins many psychological practices, from mindfulness meditation to psychotherapy and self-help strategies. However, empirical evidence challenges the accuracy of introspection as a means of understanding oneself.Limitations of Introspective InsightSeminal work by Nisbett and Wilson demonstrated that individuals are frequently unaware of the true causes...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Manual versus Automated Ventilation with an i-gel<sup>®</sup> Airway During Short-Haul Helicopter Operations.

Prehospital emergency care·2026
Same author

A workforce-informed competency framework defines 94 core abilities of credentialed veterinary technicians.

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association·2026
Same author

Investigating climate change through argumentation: Purposeful questioning supports argumentation and knowledge acquisition.

Journal of experimental psychology. Applied·2025
Same author

The Role of Regional Anesthesia in ICU Pain Management.

Current pain and headache reports·2025
Same author

Enriching Thinking Through Discourse.

Cognitive science·2024
Same author

What we learned from Covid-19 about discourse-based learning.

Learning, culture and social interaction·2022

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
04:51

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

Published on: July 8, 2025

Are self-explanations always beneficial?

Deanna Kuhn1, Jared Katz

  • 1Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. dk100@columbia.edu

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|April 24, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Generating self-explanations can hinder learning, particularly for young students. Focusing on data interpretation, rather than explanation, improved causal inference skills in fourth-graders.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Educational Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Self-explanations are often assumed to benefit learning.
  • However, the impact of self-explanations on causal learning requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the effect of self-explanations on causal inference in fourth-grade students.
  • To determine if generating explanations interferes with the development of data-reading skills.

Main Methods:

  • Fourth-graders participated in an eight-session database investigation to identify causal effects.
  • One group generated self-explanations about causal mechanisms; a control group did not.
  • Performance was assessed on a subsequent causal inference transfer task.

More Related Videos

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children
07:01

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Published on: March 1, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 23, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
04:51

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

Published on: July 8, 2025

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children
07:01

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Published on: March 1, 2019

Main Results:

  • Students who did not generate self-explanations demonstrated superior performance on the causal inference task.
  • This suggests that an emphasis on explanation may impede learning in this context.

Conclusions:

  • Self-explanations can have a detrimental effect on learning, particularly in the development of causal inference skills.
  • Prioritizing "data-reading" skills over explanation generation may be more effective for certain learning objectives.