Good article to share - Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests

Hi parents,

Be positive to your kids under 12, because they cannot learn from mistakes.

Benny Lam
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Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080925104309.htm

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:

Anna 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.