Psychologists have discovered that children continue to learn even when they seem to be "unaware" of their surroundings.

A new study conducted by the Department of Psychology at the College of Arts and Sciences has revealed that children learn equally well, regardless of whether they are trying or not, while adults tend to disregard information they do not actively focus on.

The findings of the study are detailed in a new article published in the journal Psychological Science.

“Don’t be upset with the boy who is jumping around while you’re reading a book,” says senior author Amy Finn, an associate professor of psychology who heads the Learning and Neural Development Lab. “He’s probably still listening and learning, even if it appears otherwise.”

In the study, a team of researchers, including graduates from the University of Tandoc, Marley Tandoc, Bharat Nadendla, and Teresa Pham, examined how well children and adults learned drawings of common objects after two different experiments.

In the first scenario, participants were instructed to focus on the drawings. In the second scenario, participants were asked to ignore the drawings and complete an entirely different task. After each scenario, participants had to quickly identify fragments of the drawings they had seen.

The researchers found that children learned the drawings equally well in both scenarios, whereas adults learned more when they were instructed to pay attention to the drawings—in other words, children’s learning was not negatively affected by their lack of focus on the information being tested.

Selective attention in children, or their ability to concentrate on a specific task while tuning out distractions, develops slowly and only fully matures by early adulthood.

Previous studies have shown that, unlike adults, a child’s brain processes information they are told to focus on in the same way as information they are not directed to pay attention to. This may be one reason why children are so adept at picking up languages spoken around them.

While returning to a childlike state of learning may seem appealing, selective attention does have its advantages. The experiments showed that attentive learning enhances educational effectiveness in adults. In other words, adults learn better when they are informed about which information is most important.

The study may influence how parents, teachers, and curriculum developers think about teaching methods for children and adults. For example, for children, the findings highlight the benefits of play and immersion in the learning process. For adults, establishing a clear task or goal at the beginning of a lesson or seminar significantly impacts learning outcomes.

“When I interact with my five-year-old, I worry less than I used to about whether he is absorbing anything if it seems like he’s not paying attention,” shares Finn.