Older children (over 3.5 years) outperformed younger children on the posttest regardless of instructional condition¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Age predicted performance across the whole sample, independent of instruction type. → Smit 2025

Evidence¶

Smit 2025¶

Smit, N., de Kleijn, R., Wicherts, J. M., & van de Pol, J. (2025). What it takes to tutor—A preregistered direct replication of the scaffolding experimental study by D. Wood et al. (1978). Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000965

q2 · i? · causal · r3

Exploratory analysis of posttest performance by age across all participants, displayed as a bimodal distribution in Figure 6; the article reports the age advantage without a test statistic or effect size. The authors note the finding is consistent with the 1976 Wood, Bruner, and Ross study.

"We found that overall, older children ( .3.5 years old) outperformed younger children, regardless of the type of instruction they had received prior to the posttest"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Age and Developmental Stage — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Older children (11/12-year-olds) outperform younger children (9/10-year-olds) when considering characteristics of on-going retrieval processes — related
• Younger children performed more redundant actions than older children — related