📋 Introduction

• Paper Title: Learning by Thinking: How Reflection Can Spur Progress Along the Learning Curve
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Journal: Administrative Science Quarterly
• Authors: Giada Di Stefano (Bocconi University), Francesca Gino (Harvard University), Gary Pisano (Harvard University), Bradley Staats (University of North Carolina)

Why this matters

Leaders can improve their teams' performance by reallocating some practice time to reflection, as this study shows that reflecting on accumulated experience can lead to superior learning outcomes compared to acquiring additional experience alone.

Findings

This research, conducted across several experiments involving over 4,000 participants, provides compelling evidence for the existence of a "reflection effect." The key findings include:

Participants who spent time reflecting on their experience with a task outperformed those who focused solely on practicing the task. This effect was observed in both field and laboratory settings, using different tasks and incentive schemes.

The benefits of reflection were found to spill over to related tasks, suggesting that reflection can enhance learning and performance beyond the specific task at hand.

Reflection was most beneficial when participants had accumulated some experience with the task but were still in the early stages of the learning curve.

The way in which individuals engage in reflection matters. While both articulation (thinking about one's experience) and codification (writing down one's reflections) can be effective, codification may be particularly helpful when dealing with more complex tasks.

Why this happens

Reflection allows individuals to make the most of their experiences by enabling them to unlock the benefits of articulating and codifying their knowledge. This process helps to deepen information processing, generate insights, and create richer mental models. By contrast, simply accumulating more experience without reflection may not provide the same opportunities for learning and growth.

Moreover, reflection can increase an individual's perceived ability to complete a task successfully, which in turn can lead to improved performance. This increased self-efficacy can motivate individuals to take on more challenging tasks, exert more effort, and persist in the face of difficulties.