Poster #40 - Relevant vs. irrelevant game: Which is better for my learning?

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Preschoolers experience diverse activities that potentially can bring about learning. However, when do they understand what activities will help what learning? For example, when do they know counting will help them learn math? Understanding what activities are linked to which abilities may be necessary for young children to begin to guide their own practice and learning. Given children’s awareness of learning and means of knowledge acquisition start to develop in early childhood (Taylor, Esbensen, & Bennett, 1994; Gopnik & Graf, 1988), it could be important to examine when they also begin to evaluate activities on the basis of their relevance for learning.

Sixty-one young children aged from 3 to 5 years played pairs of game in two sessions. In Session A, children played a pair of game that were visually similar, but were different in terms of ability that is required: a non-counting game in which they could give as many animals tiles to a character as they wanted and a counting game in which they should give as many animals as circles were shown. In session B, children played both an easy counting game in which they needed to count small numbers (e.g., 1, 2, 3) and a hard counting game that required counting bigger numbers (e.g., 7, 8, 9). The orders of sessions and games within the session were counterbalanced. After playing the pairs of game in each session, we presented other counting activities (e.g., counting candies in a bag), and other domain activities (e.g., making a boat with paper). Children were then asked, playing which game (in the pair) would lead them to do the counting better and which would lead to do the making activity better.

Three-year-olds did not differentiate counting and non-counting games that were visually similar, whereas older children correctly distinguished them in Session A. When children’s choice of counting game was analyzed, there was an age effect (p < .001). The 3- and 4-year-olds did not understand that playing the counting game rather than the non-counting one would improve their counting ability, but 5-year-olds chose correctly. (See Figure 1.) The 5-year-olds also understood that playing the counting game does not necessarily improve other abilities. In session B, all age groups identified the game that required counting bigger numbers as more difficult, but only the 4- and 5-year-olds understood that playing the difficult counting game over the easy one would improve their counting ability. (See Figure 2.) Children who understood that playing the difficult counting game would improve their counting ability also had better counting ability with age controlled.

The overall pattern indicated that children’s capacity to differentiate tasks based on which ability is used and understanding that doing an activity that requires a specific domain of ability improves that ability develops in early childhood. Furthermore, those children who understood which activity is more beneficial to improve a specific domain of ability were also more likely to have better ability in that domain. The developmental and educational implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Jeein Jeong, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Douglas Frye, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author