Who's a Better Learner, Children or Adults?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to find out who is a better learner, children or adults through three phases of chess. Methods/Materials Methods: I created a lesson plan specifically targeting the key ideas of chess principals: Opening (to test memory); Middlegame (to test problem solving skills); and Endgame (to test conceptual ideas). Following the lesson plan, an exam was administered covering the three main phases of chess. These exams were targeted to children and adults with little chess experience, at beginner's level. Materials: Chess board, chess pieces, demo board, demo board stand, lesson plan, and test/exam Results Children: Opening - % correct: 60%, Middlegame - 48%, Endgame - 62% Total average % of all categories - 56.67% Adults: Opening - % correct: 42%, Middlegame - 50%, Endgame - 50%, Total average - 47.33% Conclusions/Discussion The children proved to be the better learners, scoring higher in memory and conceptual thinking, yet the adults scored higher in problem solving. Opening: Part of the brain that controls memory is in the temporal lobe/hippocampus. As you grow older, the hippocampus is altered through structural and biochemical changes, causing memory loss. Maybe this is why the children dominated the adults in this area. Middlegame: Part of the brain that controls problem solving skills is in the frontal lobe, where calculation and specific details are processed. This is one of the last areas of your brain to develop, and proven true, with the adults scoring higher than the children in this phase. Endgame: Several parts of the brain control concepts, the frontal lobe (sequential execution of the endgame) and the temporal lobe. It appears that the adults used mainly problem solving skills, trying to solve the puzzles through calculation. They did not see/consider the #whole picture#. Attitude/Nature: Both groups were equal, in terms of strength, but the children had a greater motivation to do well on the exam. Some adults didn#t put as much importance into the test, and some too embarrassed to take the test for fear of humiliation.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2008 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0628

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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