Summary: Contrary to common ideas, individuals can learn new engine skills faster than children, but children retain these expertise much due to more efficient sleep-driven memory combination. In a recent study, people showed faster ability consolidation, while kids demonstrated exceptional engagement after sleep.
The findings highlight how engine understanding is impacted by age, and how that affects rehabilitation and skill training strategies. Adults ‘ intelligent mental capabilities likely contribute to faster learning, while children’s sleeping aids storage consolidation. These insights may gain professionals in areas like sports, learning, and physical therapy.
Important Information:
- Children retain motor skills much after falling asleep, whereas adults learn them more quickly.
- Children increase in skill achievement immediately, while adults tend to lose some capacity.
- These results could manual skill education, rehab, and teaching strategies.
Origin: University of Copenhagen
Contrary to popular belief, children are n’t better at learning new skills than adults. Young people, in fact, learn more quickly than children, but they also have a tendency to overlook. Here, better nap seems to benefit children. A recent study from the University of Copenhagen came to this conclusion.
It’s widely believed that children learn new engine skills faster than adults, whether it’s mastering cliffs or skateparks, learning new languages, doing cartwheels or picking up new party moves from TikTok.
According to popular science literature and a number of textbooks,” children in a particular age range, about eight to puberty, are generally more adept at learning new skills than adults.”
This is frequently referred to as the “golden age of engine skills learning.” But there’s no real biological basis for this so-called beautiful time,” says Jesper Lundbye-Jensen, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports and mind of the area ‘ Movement &, Neuroscience.
The researchers were interested in understanding how age-related differences in our central nervous system affect motor skill learning in light of the well-known theory of a pre-pubescent motor learning peak.
Their findings are now published in , Developmental Science.
In the study, the researchers tested the motor learning abilities of 132 participants from four age groups: 8-10 years, 12-14 years, 16-18 years, and 20-30 years. Participants practiced moving a cursor with quick, precise finger motions on a computer screen in a lab setting.
Older participants learned faster
The participant’s performance was evaluated immediately following the training session, 24 hours later, and as a baseline.
During the training session itself, both the 16-18-year-olds and 20-30-year-olds improved their skills significantly more than the 8-10-year-olds.
Thus, it appears that younger adults and teenagers are more able to pick up new skills quickly than younger adults, who both showed smaller and slower improvement.
The research article’s lead author, a former PhD student at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, who is now employed as a researcher at the Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance at Hvidovre Hospital, states that “at least when it comes to short-term learning and motor skills that this study investigated.
The researchers have a few theories, but they ca n’t say for certain what causes the adults ‘ learning speed.
The results demonstrate that early in training, participants become more skilled as they get older.
” This suggests that they get more out of the task introduction. According to Jesper Lundbye-Jensen, we believe that increased cognitive development and a better understanding of information may contribute to this.
The difference may also be because an adult’s fully developed nervous system provides better structural conditions for learning. In other words, adults may become more effective at learning new things after many years of schooling.
Sleep has a higher impact on children.
The picture changes when it comes to retention:
The dynamic shifts when we examine what occurs between the participants ‘ departures from training on the day of their return. Adults lose some of their performance potential, despite the fact that the youngest participants actually improve over the course of a few days. According to Mikkel Malling Beck, this teaches children how to strengthen and consolidate their memories after they practice.
According to the researchers, this suggests that sleep benefits children’s learning and memory more. However, there might be more to it. For instance, older children and adults typically have less and more” contesting” activities throughout the day. After the training is over, the nervous system’s memory-consolidation processes continue for hours.
” When a math class ends, the brain keeps working on what was taught, and in doing so, reinforces memory. Sleep is known to aid consolidation. However, Jesper Lundbye-Jensen warns that engaging in other activities in the hours following, especially those that involve learning, can impair memory development and the consolidation of what was just learned.
Potential applications for professionals
The study shows that the learning process differs significantly depending on age, with underlying mechanisms affected by one’s central nervous system’s maturity, despite the overall learning outcome not changing significantly between age groups.
According to the researchers, the results could be useful in teaching and training fields that involve skill and movement, such as sports and music. The findings are also applicable in other areas, according to Jessica Lundbye-Jensen:
It’s crucial to organize training so that each person gets the most out of their time, according to the saying” for anyone aiming to improve their skills.” This is also true for those who are recovering from function loss.
” We hope that this new understanding of age-related differences and post-training processes will inspire physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and other professionals when designing training protocols”.
About this news item about research into learning and neurodevelopment.
Author: Maria Hornbek
Source: University of Copenhagen
Contact: Maria Hornbek – University of Copenhagen
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
” Different ways to learn motor skills while developing both online and offline” by Jesper Lundbye-Jensen et al. Developmental Science
Abstract
Different ways to learn motor skills while developing both online and offline
From childhood to adulthood, the human central nervous system ( CNS ) undergoes significant changes, which may affect how individuals at various developmental stages acquire new skills.
To test the hypothesis that differences in the maturation of various learning mechanisms cause distinct temporal patterns of motor learning during practice and overnight, we conducted a study of motor skill learning in children, adolescents, and young adults.
We found that overall learning did not differ between children, adolescents, and young adults. However, we demonstrate that adult-like skill learning is characterized by rapid and large improvements in motor performance during practice ( i. e., online ) that are susceptible to forgetting and decay over time ( i. e., offline ).
Child-like learning, on the other hand, exhibits slower and lesspronounced performance-enhancing improvements during practice that are resistant to forgetting and do not materialize overnight.
Different learning processes are ingrained in the human CNS through various temporal dynamics in the development of motor skills.
In conclusion, child-like learning mechanisms lead to improved motor performance online, whereas adult-like skill learning mechanisms lead to improved offline behavioral outcomes.
