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The development of associate learning in school age children
Brian T Harel1, Robert H Pietrzak2, Peter J Snyder3
1CogState, Ltd., New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
Plos One
|July 12, 2014
Summary
Younger children made more errors in visual associate learning than older children. This suggests that executive function development, not memory, drives these age-related differences in learning.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Associate learning is crucial for knowledge acquisition and daily functioning in children.
- The developmental trajectory of associate learning remains incompletely understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental course of visual associate learning in school-aged children.
- To examine how memory load impacts learning efficiency across different age groups.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Continuous Paired Associate Learning task.
- Assessed 125 school-aged children.
- Analyzed error rates and learning efficiency across varying memory loads.
Main Results:
- Younger children exhibited higher error rates compared to older children across all memory loads.
- Learning efficiency decreased significantly with increasing memory load, particularly in younger participants.
- Performance differences were linked to ongoing executive function development.
Conclusions:
- Age-related disparities in visual associate learning are primarily attributed to the maturation of executive functions.
- Memory processes appear relatively developed, with executive functions playing a more significant role in modulating learning performance during childhood.
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