Here's why kids are better learners than adults
| Aug 6, 2019, 15:20 IST
As an adult, the one thing you yearn for is to be able to pay undivided attention towards something. It's practically a compliment when someone tells you just how focused you are. A new study has found that when it comes to adults versus kids, kids are better at grasping things because unlike adults, they notice everything. The study found that adults use selective attention to focus on information they think is important whereas kids have a rather broad spectrum of attention distribution.
And because of this, in certain situations children can actually do better than adults when it comes to learning things. 34 adults and 36 four-year-old kids were asked to participate in the study. The participants were provided with information that was irrelevant at the start of the experiment but as it progressed, the information became vital for a task they were required to complete.
“Adults had a hard time readjusting because they didn’t learn the information they thought wouldn’t be important,” said one expert. “Children, on the other hand, recovered quickly to the new circumstances because they weren’t ignoring anything. I’m sure a lot of parents will recognize that tendency of children to notice everything, even when you wish they wouldn’t,” he said. Stay tuned for more updates.
And because of this, in certain situations children can actually do better than adults when it comes to learning things. 34 adults and 36 four-year-old kids were asked to participate in the study. The participants were provided with information that was irrelevant at the start of the experiment but as it progressed, the information became vital for a task they were required to complete.
“Adults had a hard time readjusting because they didn’t learn the information they thought wouldn’t be important,” said one expert. “Children, on the other hand, recovered quickly to the new circumstances because they weren’t ignoring anything. I’m sure a lot of parents will recognize that tendency of children to notice everything, even when you wish they wouldn’t,” he said. Stay tuned for more updates.