Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC)

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Education for Persistence & Innovation Center

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Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC) is a global interdisciplinary research center at Teachers College, Columbia University, dedicated to figuring out how to turn failure into success.

We use techniques from cognitive science, social-cultural psychology, neuropsychology, oral history, and education to study the critical role that failure plays as a catalyst for learning, innovation, and career development.

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Academic Alert


  • overconfidence article

    Overexposure to Success Can Influence Confidence and Expectations

    The “blinding effect” of expecting yourself to successfully recreate what you see from inflated confidence can cause people to fall short of their expectations and over criticize others on their attempts. Especially in today’s world, it is important to understand how easily people are influenced by what they see. Let’s take a look at how Wald et al.’s (2022) study investigates this.
  • future goals article

    Valuing Future Goals Upon Facing Failures

    Folk wisdom is a rich but frustrating form of knowledge in social sciences because of its insights into contradictory predictions. “The fox and the grapes” suggest that after attempting to reach a goal and failing, individuals’ motivation to complete a task declines. On the other hand, the “grass is greener” fable suggests that out-of-reach rewards are especially desirable. Sjastad et al. investigates people’s motivation to complete and value of future goals upon initial failure.
  • financial rewards article

    Exploring the Power of Financial Incentives: How Rewards Shape Focus, Performance, and Post-Error Adjustments

    Williams et al. (2016) explores the impact of financial rewards on participants' focus and performance in a game setting, delving into the intricacies of motivation and performance. While keeping in mind the interplay between incentives and cognitive control, the researchers set out to address pressing questions about the efficacy of financial incentives and their influence on post-error adjustments.
  • emotions and cognitive learning article

    The Relationship Between Emotions and the Application of Cognitive Learning Strategies

    Amongst learners, enjoyment and boredom are frequently experienced achievement emotions. Research has increasingly examined the relationship between achievement emotions and utilizing cognitive learning strategies, as they are key to successful learning (Murayama et al. 2013; Pekrun et al. 2017). However, literature on the relationship between students’ enjoyment and boredom and their approaches to cognitive learning is not robust.
Background Image: Einstein Background

Research Spotlight: “Even Einstein Struggled

Students’ beliefs that success in science depends on exceptional talent negatively impact their motivation to learn. For example, such beliefs have been shown to be a major factor steering students away from taking science and math courses in high school and college. In the present study, we tested a novel story-based instruction that models how scientists achieve through failures and struggles.

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