Many people believe that children find it easier to acquire new knowledge and skills than adults. This quality is especially evident when learning foreign languages.
But is this really true? Danish scientists decided to find out whether learning is really easier for children.
Research on this topic was conducted by employees of the University of Copenhagen, and the results were published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour.
Research by scientists
As part of the scientific work, specialists analyzed how adults and children perform something new, and what influence age differences in the central nervous system have on this process.
For this purpose, 132 people were recruited and formed into 4 groups: 8-10 years old, 12-14 years old, 16-18 years old and 20 to 30 years old.
Everyone was given a task that required them to move the cursor across the screen using finger movements.
First, a 30-minute training session was conducted. Skills were assessed after a short break and 24 hours later.
What we managed to find out
On the first day, it turned out that the participants in the 16-18 and 20-30 year old groups coped with the task better than the children aged 8-10.
But the next day, everything changed. The older participants needed to read the instructions, and their performance decreased.
But the young participants in the experiment managed to improve on their experience overnight.
According to scientists, children better absorb the knowledge and skills they receive as a result of their education.
