Make Mistakes! They Can Be Rewarding

First Posted: Aug 25, 2015 02:04 PM EDT
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Go ahead. Make mistakes. Why? Because they can actually be rewarding, and science proves it.

New findings published in the journal Nature Communications reveals how making a mistake can be rewarding for the brain, particularly if the brain is given an opportunity to learn from the mistakes and assess its options.

Of course, this is nothing new. Scientists have long understood that the brain can emotionally benefit in a positive way from learning from its mistakes. And more specifically, it can benefit in two specific ways: One, from avoidance learning, which involves punishing, or training the brain to avoid repeating past mistakes, and the other, known as reward-based learning, or a positive, reinforcing experience in which the brain feels rewarded for searching for the right answer.

In this recent study, researchers engaged 28 subjects around the age of 26, via a series of questions that challenged them to maximize their gains by providing the right answers. They lost money if they chose the wrong answer while choosing the right answer helped them earn money.

While one trial prompted their brains to respond to getting the wrong answer via avoidance learning, the second promoted a reward-based learning reaction. Then, a third but separate trial tested whether participants had learned from their mistakes, allowing them to review and understand just what they failed to get right.

The third round gave participants a fair shot at responding positively, in which areas of their brains were activated in what some scientists refer to as the "reward circuit"-or the "ventral striatum." This experience mimicked the brain's reward-based learning response, as opposed to an avoidance-learning response--an experience that involves different parts of the brain that together comprise the "anterior insula."

With regret, for instance, if you have done something wrong, then you might change your behavior in the future," Giorgio Coricelli, a USC Dornsife associate professor of economics and psychology, said in a news release

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