Study finds kids and adults make inferences differently
Nov 23, 2021
New Delhi, Nov 23 (ANI): A new study of brain activity patterns in people doing a memory task has found that the way we make inferences changes dramatically as we age. The findings of the study were published in the journal 'Nature Human Behaviour'. The study's findings might one day lead to personalised learning strategies based on a person's cognitive and brain development. Adults’ structure knowledge is not necessarily optimal for children because adult strategies might require brain machinery that is not fully mature in children. The researchers found that whereas adults build integrated memories with inferences already baked in, children and adolescents create separate memories that they later compare to make inferences on the fly. In the absence of a mature memory system, the best thing a child can do is lay down accurate, non-overlapping memory traces. Teenagers may have learning strategies that are tuned to explore the world more so than exploiting what they already know.
