Poster #1 - Active Control of Learning Enhances Memory Across the Lifespan

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

In recent years, research in education and psychology has suggested that giving students the opportunity to exert some degree of independent, active control over the learning experience leads to improved learning outcomes as compared to more passive forms of instruction (Markant et al., 2016; Ruggeri et al., 2019). However, it is still unclear why and under which conditions active learning is beneficial, and how the advantage of active learning emerges at the earliest stages of life.
The current project presents a novel, critical perspective on the rapidly growing literature examining potential benefits of active learning for recognition memory. We review previous work documenting the effects of active control of study as a learning modality, and trace for the first time the cross-sectional lifespan trajectory of the effects of active control of study on memory from age 5 to 69, by analyzing one set of published data (Ruggeri et al., 2019) together with three new, unpublished sets of data collected from adolescents, younger and older adults, all using the same experimental paradigm. We also tested infants and toddlers between 18 and 36 months of age on a novel gaze-contingent task with a within-subject design. In the task, participants played a simple memory game with the instruction to try to remember (Study phase) and later recognize (Test phase) a set of objects (64 objects for participants aged 5 to 69, 12 objects for toddlers from 18 to 36 months of age). In the Study phase, 5- to 69-year-olds were presented with 16 objects arranges in a 4x4 grid in each of the 4 blocks, and 18- to 36-month-olds were presented with 6 objects in a 2x3 grid in each of the 2 blocks. For half of the materials presented, participants could decide the order and pacing of study (Active condition). For the other half, they passively observed the study decisions of a previous participant (Yoked condition). The Study phase was immediately followed by a Test phase. For 5- to 69-year-olds, 16 objects were again presented in a 4x4 grid with 1 to 15 old objects in each of the 8 test blocks. For 18- to 36-month-olds, the objects were presented in pairs, with one object being completely novel, and the other object from either the active or the passive phase.
We analyzed participants’ recognition accuracy, spatial accuracy (for 5- to 69-year-olds) and novelty preference (for 18- to 36-month-olds) as a function of age and condition. We also analyzed the study pattern in the Active condition and its relation to the memory performance. Overall, the results suggest that active learning advantage may emerge already at 18 months of age, reaches adult-like magnitude by age 8 and remains fairly stable throughout the lifespan. Furthermore, our analyses reveal that recognition memory is improved by systematic study patterns, and that this relationship is fairly stable across age groups.
Our study provides novel insights into why and under which conditions active learning is beneficial, and how it emerges at the earliest stages of life.

Authors

• Yi-Lin Li, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
  Presenting Author

• F. Poli, Radboud University

• Douglas Markant

• Azzurra Ruggeri, Max-Planck Institute for Human Development