Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2026
08:05
Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques
Published on: June 30, 2020
Evaluating the negative or valuing the positive? Neural mechanisms supporting feedback-based learning across
Anna C K van Duijvenvoorde1, Kiki Zanolie, Serge A R B Rombouts
1Leiden University Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden University, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands.
Summary
Children learn differently from feedback than adults. Young children focus on positive feedback for continuation, while adults use negative feedback for adjustments, with a transition around age 11-13.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Understanding how children learn from performance feedback is crucial for education.
- Feedback-based learning involves neural mechanisms that change throughout development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate developmental changes in neural responses to positive and negative feedback.
- To compare how different age groups utilize feedback for learning.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study brain activity.
- Three age groups (8-9 years, 11-13 years, and 18-25 years) performed a rule search and application task.
Main Results:
- Young children (8-9) performed worse after negative feedback and showed increased brain activity in certain regions with positive feedback.
- Adults showed increased activity in similar regions after negative feedback.
- Children aged 11-13 displayed transitional patterns, suggesting a developmental shift in feedback processing.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive control areas are recruited differently during feedback-based learning across development.
- Adults use negative feedback for response adjustment, while young children associate positive feedback with response continuation.
- Neural processing of feedback undergoes significant developmental changes, with a transition occurring around adolescence.
Related Concept Videos
01:18Negative and Positive Feedback
Animal organs and organ systems constantly adjust to internal and external changes through a process called homeostasis ("steady state"). Examples of these changes include regulation of the level of glucose or calcium in the blood or internal responses to external temperatures. Homeostasis requires maintaining an internal dynamic equilibrium:
01:24Effects of feedback
Feedback in control systems plays a critical role in shaping various operational parameters, extending beyond simple error reduction to influence stability, bandwidth, gain, impedance, and sensitivity. Understanding these effects requires examining a basic feedback system characterized by defined input, output, error, and feedback signals.
Feedback significantly modifies the gain of a control system. The gain of a system without feedback is altered by a factor of one plus GH, where G represents...
Feedback significantly modifies the gain of a control system. The gain of a system without feedback is altered by a factor of one plus GH, where G represents...
01:18Positive and Negative Feedback Loops
Animal organs and organ systems constantly adjust to internal and external changes through a process called homeostasis ("steady state"). Examples of these changes include regulation of the level of glucose or calcium in the blood or internal responses to external temperatures. Homeostasis requires maintaining an internal dynamic equilibrium:
01:07Cell Signaling Feedback Loops
Positive and negative feedback loops are crucial for regulating biological signaling systems. These feedback loops are processes that connect output signals to their inputs.
Negative feedback loops
Most signaling systems have negative feedback loops that can perform different functions such as output limiter, and adaptation.
Output limiter
Upon receiving an input signal, the cellular response rapidly increases until a threshold is reached. Beyond this threshold, a negative feedback loop...
Negative feedback loops
Most signaling systems have negative feedback loops that can perform different functions such as output limiter, and adaptation.
Output limiter
Upon receiving an input signal, the cellular response rapidly increases until a threshold is reached. Beyond this threshold, a negative feedback loop...
01:01Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity reflects the brain's remarkable capacity to adapt and evolve, responding dynamically to learning, experiences, or injury by reorganizing its neural circuitry. This reorganization involves creating new neural connections and refining old ones through a series of biological processes that contribute to the brain's lifelong development and adaptability.
01:30Information Processing Approach
The information-processing theory of cognitive development centers on fundamental mental processes, including attention, memory, and problem-solving skills. Researchers in this field examine how cognitive abilities, such as working memory, evolve and influence children's overall development. Studies indicate that children with stronger working memory tend to excel in reading comprehension, math, and problem-solving compared to peers with less efficient memory skills. Low working memory is also...