Reading Article 4

What's the meaning of the underlined word:

In the studies, we used something called a two-stage paradigm: First participants attempted a task in which they failed; then — after series of unrelated tasks — they would have the opportunity to redeem 3 themselves

In one, we asked our participants to search the internet for the lowest price for a particular blender brand and model (with the possibility of winning a cash price if they were successful). In reality, the task was rigged, so it wasn't really possible for any cash prize to be won to begin with. What does rigged mean?

• lowered

• increased

• manipulated or controlled by deceptive or dishonest

• realistic

What does examined mean in this sentence: When we examined the written responses, we also found some important differences.

• revealed

• inspected

• took a test

• passed a test

Based on the passage, what is the author’s view of the “popular wisdom” that people should ignore the bad feelings that come from failure?

• She questions it.

• She agrees with it

• She has no opinion on it

The author believes that noticing the negative emotions from failure is important because…

What did the author learn from her experiment about the importance of negative emotions?

Based on your reading: Why does the writer think that focusing on the emotions of failure can trigger different thoughts and behaviors?

How many people held a study to explore upsides of feeling negatively about failure?

But is it possible that popular wisdom is missing a bit of the puzzle? Does setting aside the negative emotions make you any less likely to repeat the mistake? Noelle Nelson, Baba Shiv and I decided to explore possible upsides of feeling bad about failure.

• 1

• 2

• 3

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Which of the participants tended to have defensive responses?

• Those who had focused on their success —

• Those who had focused on their failure —

• all participants

• the ones that dwelled on how they felt

Those who had focused on their failure — rather than dwelling on how they felt — tended to have defensive responses: “I didn’t care much about this anyway”; “It would have been impossible to find that price.”

To "dwell on something" means?

• a home or residential area

• to keep thinking or talking about something, especially something positive or happy

• to keep thinking or talking about something, especially something bad or unpleasant