Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children& #39;s motivation and performance. Journal of personality and social psychology, 75(1), 33-52.
Praise for ability is commonly considered to have beneficial effects on motivation. Contrary to this popular belief, six studies demonstrated that praise for intelligence had more negative consequences for students' achievement motivation than praise for effort. Fifth graders praised for intelligence were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised for effort. After failure, they also displayed less task ...