Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests

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Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2008)

— Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy

from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from

positive feedback ('Well done!'), whereas negative feedback ('Got it

wrong this time') scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring.

Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use

it to learn from their mistakes. Adults do the same, but more

efficiently.

Brain areas for cognitive control

The switch in learning strategy has been demonstrated in behavioural

research, which shows that eight-year-olds respond disproportionately

inaccurately to negative feedback. But the switch can also be seen in

the brain, as developmental psychologist Dr Eveline Crone and her

colleagues from the Leiden Brain and Cognition Lab discovered using

fMRI research. The difference can be observed particularly in the

areas of the brain responsible for cognitive control. These areas are

located in the cerebral cortex.

Opposite case

In children of eight and nine, these areas of the brain react

strongly to positive feedback and scarcely respond at all to negative

feedback. But in children of 12 and 13, and also in adults, the

opposite is the case. Their 'control centres' in the brain are more

strongly activated by negative feedback and much less by positive

feedback.

Three-way division

Crone and her colleagues used fMRI research to compare the brains of

three different age groups: children of eight to nine years, children

of eleven to twelve years, and adults aged between 18 and 25 years.

This three-way division had never been made before; the comparison is

generally made between children and adults.

Unexpected

Crone herself was surprised at the outcome: 'We had expected that

the brains of eight-year-olds would function in exactly the same way as

the brains of twelve-year-olds, but maybe not quite so well. Children

learn the whole time, so this new knowledge can have major consequences

for people wanting to teach children: how can you best relay

instructions to eight- and twelve-year-olds?' ’

Ticks and crosses

The researchers gave children of both age groups and adults aged 18

to 25 a computer task while they lay in the MRI scanner. The task

required them to discover rules. If they did this correctly, a tick

appeared on the screen, otherwise a cross appeared. MRI scans showed

which parts of the brain were activated.

Learning in a different way

These surprising results set Crone thinking. 'You start to think

less in terms of 'good' and 'not so good'. Children of eight may well

be able to learn extremely efficiently, only they do it in a different

way.'

Learning from mistakes is complicated

She is able to place her fMRI results within the existing knowledge

about child development. 'From the literature, it appears that young

children respond better to reward than to punishment.' She can also

imagine how this comes about: 'The information that you have not done

something well is more complicated than the information that you have

done something well. Learning from mistakes is more complex than

carrying on in the same way as before. You have to ask yourself what

precisely went wrong and how it was possible.'

Is it experience?

Is that difference between eight- and twelve-year-olds the result of

experience, or does it have to do with the way the brain develops? As

yet, nobody has the answer. 'This kind of brain research has only been

possible for the last ten years or so,' says Crone, 'and there are a

lot more questions which have to be answered. But it is probably a

combination of the brain maturing and experience.'

Brain area for positive feedback

There is also an area of the brain that responds strongly to

positive feedback: the basal ganglia, just outside the cerebral

cortex. The activity of this area of the brain does not change. It

remains active in all age groups: in adults, but also in children, both

eight-year-olds and twelve-year-olds.

Journal reference:

C. K. van Duijvenvoorde, Kiki Zanolie, Serge A. R. B. Rombouts, Maartje E. J. Raijmakers, and Eveline A. Crone. Evaluating the Negative or Valuing the Positive? Neural Mechanisms Supporting Feedback-Based Learning across Development. The Journal of Neuroscience, 17 September 2008 [link]

Adapted from materials provided by Leiden University. Carol in ILMom to , 8 DS My problem is not how I look. It's how you see me.VOTE NOBAMA '08Join our Down Syndrome information group - http://health. groups.yahoo. com/group/ DownSyndromeInfo Exchange/ Listen to oldest dd's music http://www.myspace. com/vennamusic