Learning From Consequences

October 18, 2012

Interview with Susan M. Schneider, author of the book The Science of Consequences: How They Affect Genes, Change the Brain, and Impact Our World

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Mike Carruthers:
Learning can be done in many ways and one great way to learn is from consequences.

Susan M. Schneider:
We know from extensive research that learning from consequences modifies the brain big time.
 

Susan Schneider author of the book, The Science of Consequences, says we actually learn better from positive consequences rather than negative ones.

Just think of it as for ourselves at work it’s nice to be appreciated for when you work hard and accomplish something. It’s just not a good working environment and it does not conduce to efficiency when all you hear are negatives.

Parents, managers, anyone who gives feedback or consequences to others should be aware of the ratio of positive to negative consequences they give.

You do want it to be fairly positive – there are a lot of benefits from that. Research is in areas ranging from language learning to prison rehabilitation to marriage relations to animal training and all those areas ratios are maybe 3 to 4 to 1 are beneficial – you do want to have it positive.

Despite the proven effectiveness of rewarding and praising positive accomplishments there just isn’t a whole lot of it around.

Few of us give or receive enough praise and I do think that is what the evidence shows. If not to say that praise can be overdone but I think that few of us are fortunate enough to have that problem frankly.