Madison DeGrezia
Professor Vejdemo-Johansson
HON 223
21 November 2021
Children or Adults: Who would risk more for the learning experience?
After thoroughly researching and examining the recent articles uploaded to the New York Post, the news article comparing learning habits between children and adults caught my interest. The article, “Study Reveals why children may be better learners than adults’”, by Shiv Sudhakar discusses how children are less likely to get discouraged when making mistakes, in comparison to adults. Children are very creative and enjoy exploring new things. They have an imagination like no other and are constantly pushing themselves to further their learning. In contrast, adults easily lack interest and motivation when they aren’t successful. Research has been conducted to further explore the optimistic demeanor of children when learning in stark contrast with adult responses to their own failure.
The New York Post article written by Sudhakar based its findings off of the research published in the peer-reviewed paper, “Children are more exploratory and learn more than adults in an approach-avoid task”, written by Emily G. Liquin and Alison Gopnik. The research carried out was composed of four different studies where the actions of young adolescents, ranging from preschool to early ages in school, were compared with adults, ranging from ages 21-62 years old. This study prompted both parties to choose which objects were “zaffs”, which would reward them with a green smiley face on the screen if they identified them correctly. The second study was conducted similarly to the first study except this time they either gained or lost stickers based off of the outcome of choosing which objects were “zaff”. The third study explored whether there was a correlation between age and the choices made when choosing the “zaffs”. They were shown four different objects and were prompted to decide each time if it was a “zaff”. In this case, the second one was not a “zaff” to see how the participant would respond to the outcome and if they would continue playing without being discouraged by their mistake. Finally, the fourth study analyzed whether the evidence participants were given affected how they learned. For example, the evidence both parties received were deemed as either “child-like evidence” or “adult-like evidence”, depending on the objects they were given information about and how many objects they approached. Overall, the four studies concluded that children explore more than adults and were unafraid to test objects even though they were unsure of the outcome. Consequently, children have proven to produce ample data and learn more sufficiently in comparison with adults.
After extensively reviewing the information discussed in the article and the paper, it is clear that there are several similarities, along with few discrepancies. The abstract and the article were in agreement with each other, as they both captured the concept that children can be more creative and accepting of failure when it comes to learning than adults. However, the article stated that only four to five year olds participated in this scientific experiment, while the paper clearly acknowledges that preschoolers and young adolescents, up to the age of seven, were used as participants in this study. The article failed to mention that there were a total of four studies conducted, which the paper extensively discussed the procedures and results for each corresponding study. The article was considerably short in length and lacked important details that the paper included to support the claim that children are better learners than adults, as a result of their willingness to explore. This did not come as a shock due to the articles on the New York Post typically being condensed versions of the corresponding scientific paper. The purpose of the article is to intrigue their audience and convince them to conduct more research. All things considered, the New York Post article was in agreement with the paper and the abstract, despite the presence of very few discrepancies.
Work Cited
Liquin, Emily G., and Alison Gopnik. “Children Are More Exploratory and Learn More than Adults in an Approach-Avoid Task.” Cognition, Elsevier, 26 Oct. 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027721003632#s0245.
News, Fox. “Study Reveals Why Children May Be Better Learners than Adults.” New York Post, New York Post, 12 Nov. 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/11/12/study-reveals-why-children-may-be-better-learners-than-adults/.
