Younger adults show higher learning performance than older adults in collaborative concept-map learning of psychological concepts, and older adults show no learning gain¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r1 · q3 · i3 large
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Younger adults scored higher than older adults on the open-ended learning test (medians 1.00 vs 0.00). → Shigen Shimojo 2025 q3 i3 Younger adults improved from pretest to posttest; older adults' median of 0 indicated no elaboration. → Shigen Shimojo 2025 (2)

Evidence¶

Shigen Shimojo 2025¶

Shigen Shimojo, Yugo Hayashi. (2025). Age-related differences in explanatory activities during collaborative learning with concept maps: experimental investigation using epistemic network analysis. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-025-09456-5

q3 · i? · associational · r1

Experiment with 26 younger and 26 older adults learning attribution theory via a concept-map CSCL task. Mann–Whitney U test on posttest minus pretest scores: "young adults scored higher than older adults" (U = 188.50, p =.004), a printed result with no standardized effect size beyond the reported r statistic.

"A Mann–Whitney U test revealed a significant difference between young adults (median = 1.00) and older adults (median = 0.00) (U = 188.50, p =.004, r = 2.04). In other words, it was found that young adults scored higher than older adults."

Shigen Shimojo 2025 (2)¶

Shigen Shimojo, Yugo Hayashi. (2025). Age-related differences in explanatory activities during collaborative learning with concept maps: experimental investigation using epistemic network analysis. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-025-09456-5

q3 · i3 · causal · r2

Within-group analysis in the Findings section: younger adults' medians rose from 3 (pretest) to 4 (posttest), U = 140.00, p =.002, r = 0.61, showing "an improvement from the pretest to the posttest." Older adults were split at median 0, described as no elaboration.

"In addition, the median score for younger adults was 3 for the pretest and 4 for the posttest, indicating an improvement from the pretest to the posttest (U = 140.00, p =.002, r = 0.61)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Younger adults outperform older adults in concept-map performance, and older adults show no concept-map improvement — related
• Age groups differ in ICAP engagement distribution: younger adults engage more in active mode, older adults more in constructive and interactive modes, during collaborative concept-map learning — related
• ENA reveals different utterance co-occurrence structures by age: older adults show a stronger active–interactive connection while younger adults' constructive–interactive connection is not statistically confirmed — related
• No age difference in the strength of active–constructive connections in collaborative discourse networks — related
• Older adults produce fewer specific responses than younger adults in the generation task across both experiments — related
• Concept-map generation requires age-appropriate instructional support: younger learners profit from high-coherence, pre-structured maps — related