Commentary on Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach (2019): A Tendency to Answer Consistently Can Generate Apparent Failures to Learn From Failure

Recent research proposes failure undermines learning: people learn less from failure than from success because failure is ego-threatening and causes people to tune out. I argue evidence from the core paradigm (the Script Task) is not sufficient to support that claim. When people do not learn from test feedback, they may give internally-consistent answers on a subsequent test. The Script Task’s scoring guidelines mark consistent answers as correct following success but incorrect following failure. As a result, differences in performance between conditions may result from equivalent learning combined with consistent responding when people do not learn. A descriptive mathematical model shows lower performance is insufficient to conclude less learning. An experiment demonstrates a retroactive manipulation without feedback replicates the effect. Because the effect of failure on performance is confounded with consistency, unless consistency is ruled out, the Script Task is not diagnostic regarding whether people learn less from failure.