Younger children tend to make more informed decisions
19-JUL-2018
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
A new study from the University of Waterloo has found that in some ways, the older you get the worse your decision making becomes.
The study established that younger children seem to make slightly better decisions than older children. The older children get, the more they tend to ignore some of the information available to them when making judgements, which though efficient can also lead to mistakes.
"It is good for us to know that kids at different ages don't necessarily treat all information similarly when we set out to teach them new things," said Stephanie Denison, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, who co-authored the study with PhD student Samantha Gualtieri. "Children maybe aren't taking all the information we are giving them at face value. They may be thinking about it in their own way and using the data in the way they think makes the most sense, which is important for parents and teachers to understand," says Gualtieri.
"Our research shows that children around four-years-old are starting to use these shortcuts, but by six-years of age they're using them at levels as high as adults."
More:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/uow-yct071818.php
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