I hadn't thought about it in terms of Dweck's work on open-mindedness but it seems like accepting failures and persisting probably fall into the category of tasks that cause ego depletion. Very interesting.
I wondered this as well. Even if it's not necessarily glucose-focused, there are a ton of angles. Depression? The two ends of manic/depressives? Sleep -> mood -> mistake response? Talking to an attractive member of the opposite sex and having it go well/not well?
I suspect that Moser/Dweck would find that programmers in a state of flow encountering a compile/runtime exception would exhibit significantly lower amplitude signal associated with immediate negative response.
Since ERN amplitude is associated with better learning, it might be the other way around, that people in flow are producing stronger ERN's and correcting their mistakes faster.
tpatke: > it just doesn't apply (and I am a huge fan on Dweck's work). This article is one for the masses - not people who are trying to create the next Google
aristus: > defining characteristic of highly creative people is their ability to change their mind at will. ... A factor in that is developing a strong associative memory ... seeking out many many kinds of knowledge and experiences and constantly trying to connect them together
Being wrong, persisting, and trying to learn from the mistake takes effort. It's difficult, and I suspect as difficult as (if not directly linked to) exerting self-control. Connecting thought is here: http://psr.sagepub.com/content/11/4/303.short
A good question for Moser/Dweck would be: is the physiological response of a child to a mistake a function of their blood glucose levels? I suspect that it is: anecdotally, people are a lot more optimistic and willing to explore an issue instead of yielding to to surface obstacles if they're on a sugar high.