An fMRI study of error monitoring in Montessori and traditionally-schooled children

Active inference goes to school: the importance of active learning in the age of large language models

Human learning essentially involves embodied interactions with the material world. But our worlds now include increasing numbers of powerful and (apparently) disembodied generative artificial intelligence (AI). In what follows we ask how best to understand these new (somewhat 'alien', because of their disembodied nature) resources and how to incorporate them in our educational practices. We focus on methodologies that encourage exploration and embodied interactions with 'prepared' material environments, such as the carefully organized settings of Montessori education. Using the active inference framework, we approach our questions by thinking about human learning as epistemic foraging and prediction error minimization. We end by arguing that generative AI should figure naturally as new elements in prepared learning environments by facilitating sequences of precise prediction error enabling trajectories of self-correction. In these ways, we anticipate new synergies between (apparently) disembodied and (essentially) embodied forms of intelligence. This article is part of the theme issue 'Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence'.

The neuroscience of active learning and direct instruction

Throughout the educational system, students experiencing active learning pedagogy perform better and fail less than those taught through direct instruction. Can this be ascribed to differences in learning from a neuroscientific perspective? This review examines mechanistic, neuroscientific evidence that might explain differences in cognitive engagement contributing to learning outcomes between these instructional approaches. In classrooms, direct instruction comprehensively describes academic content, while active learning provides structured opportunities for learners to explore, apply, and manipulate content. Synaptic plasticity and its modulation by arousal or novelty are central to all learning and both approaches. As a form of social learning, direct instruction relies upon working memory. The reinforcement learning circuit, associated agency, curiosity, and peer-to-peer social interactions combine to enhance motivation, improve retention, and build higher-order-thinking skills in active learning environments. When working memory becomes overwhelmed, additionally engaging the reinforcement learning circuit improves retention, providing an explanation for the benefits of active learning. This analysis provides a mechanistic examination of how emerging neuroscience principles might inform pedagogical choices at all educational levels.

Differences in spatiotemporal brain network dynamics of Montessori and traditionally schooled students

Across development, experience has a strong impact on the way we think and adapt. School experience affects academic and social-emotional outcomes, yet whether differences in pedagogical experience modulate underlying brain network development is still unknown. In this study, we compared the brain network dynamics of students with different pedagogical backgrounds. Specifically, we characterized the diversity and stability of brain activity at rest by combining both resting-state fMRI and diffusion-weighted structural imaging data of 87 4-18 years old students experiencing either the Montessori pedagogy (i.e., student-led, trial-and-error pedagogy) or the traditional pedagogy (i.e., teacher-led, test-based pedagogy). Our results revealed spatiotemporal brain dynamics differences between students as a function of schooling experience at the whole-brain level. Students from Montessori schools showed overall higher functional integration (higher system diversity) and neural stability (lower spatiotemporal diversity) compared to traditionally schooled students. Higher integration was explained mainly through the cerebellar (CBL) functional network. In contrast, higher temporal stability was observed in the ventral attention, dorsal attention, somatomotor, frontoparietal, and CBL functional networks. This study suggests a form of experience-dependent dynamic functional connectivity plasticity, in learning-related networks.

Elucidating the underlying components of metacognitive systematic bias in the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex

Metacognitive systematic bias impairs human learning efficiency, which is characterized by the inconsistency between predicted and actual memory performance. However, the underlying mechanism of metacognitive systematic bias remains unclear in existing studies. In this study, we utilized judgments of learning task in human participants to compare the neural mechanism difference in metacognitive systematic bias. Participants encoded words in fMRI sessions that would be tested later. Immediately after encoding each item, participants predicted how likely they would remember it. Multivariate analyses on fMRI data demonstrated that working memory and uncertainty decisions are represented in patterns of neural activity in metacognitive systematic bias. The available information participants used led to overestimated bias and underestimated bias. Effective connectivity analyses further indicate that information about the metacognitive systematic bias is represented in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex. Different neural patterns were found underlying overestimated bias and underestimated bias. Specifically, connectivity regions with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and supramarginal gyrus form overestimated bias, while less regional connectivity forms underestimated bias. These findings provide a mechanistic account for the construction of metacognitive systematic bias.

Variation in pedagogy affects overimitation in children and adolescents

Children are strong imitators, which sometimes leads to overimitation of causally unnecessary actions. Here, we tested whether learning from a peer decreases this tendency. First, 65 7- to 10-year-old children performed the Hook task (i.e., retrieve a reward from a jar with tools) with child or adult demonstrators. The overimitation rate was lower after watching a peer versus an adult. Second, we tested whether experiencing peer-to-peer learning versus adult-driven learning (i.e., Montessori or traditional pedagogy) affected overimitation. Here, 66 4- to 18-year-old children and adolescents performed the Hook task with adult demonstrators only. Montessori-schooled children had a lower propensity to overimitate. These findings emphasize the importance of the teaching model across the school years. Whereas peer models favor selective imitation, adult models encourage overimitation.

Learning by Heart or with Heart: Brain Asymmetry Reflects Pedagogical Practices

Brain hemispheres develop rather symmetrically, except in the case of pathology or intense training. As school experience is a form of training, the current study tested the influence of pedagogy on morphological development through the cortical thickness (CTh) asymmetry index (AI). First, we compared the CTh AI of 111 students aged 4 to 18 with 77 adults aged > 20. Second, we investigated the CTh AI of the students as a function of schooling background (Montessori or traditional). At the whole-brain level, CTh AI was not different between the adult and student groups, even when controlling for age. However, pedagogical experience was found to impact CTh AI in the temporal lobe, within the parahippocampal (PHC) region. The PHC region has a functional lateralization, with the right PHC region having a stronger involvement in spatiotemporal context encoding, while the left PHC region is involved in semantic encoding. We observed CTh asymmetry toward the left PHC region for participants enrolled in Montessori schools and toward the right for participants enrolled in traditional schools. As these participants were matched on age, intelligence, home-life and socioeconomic conditions, we interpret this effect found in memory-related brain regions to reflect differences in learning strategies. Pedagogy modulates how new concepts are encoded, with possible long-term effects on knowledge transfer.

Disentangling age and schooling effects on inhibitory control development: An fNIRS investigation

Children show marked improvements in executive functioning (EF) between 4 and 7 years of age. In many societies, this time period coincides with the start of formal school education, in which children are required to follow rules in a structured environment, drawing heavily on EF processes such as inhibitory control. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal development of two aspects of inhibitory control, namely response inhibition and response monitoring and their neural correlates. Specifically, we examined how their longitudinal development may differ by schooling experience, and their potential significance in predicting academic outcomes. Longitudinal data were collected in two groups of children at their homes. At T1, all children were roughly 4.5 years of age and neither group had attended formal schooling. One year later at T2, one group (P1, n = 40) had completed one full year of schooling while the other group (KG, n = 40) had stayed in kindergarten. Behavioural and brain activation data (measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fNIRS) in response to a Go/No-Go task and measures of academic achievement were collected. We found that P1 children, compared to KG children, showed a greater change over time in activation related to response monitoring in the bilateral frontal cortex. The change in left frontal activation difference showed a small positive association with math performance. Overall, the school environment is important in shaping the development of the brain functions underlying the monitoring of one own's performance.

An Association Between Montessori Education in Childhood and Adult Wellbeing

Wellbeing, or how people think and feel about their lives, predicts important life outcomes from happiness to health to longevity. Montessori pedagogy has features that enhance wellbeing contemporaneously and predictively, including self-determination, meaningful activities, and social stability. Here, 1905 adults, ages 18-81 (M = 36), filled out a large set of wellbeing scales followed by demographic information including type of school attended each year from 2 to 17. About half the sample had only attended conventional schools and the rest had attended Montessori for between 2 and 16 years (M = 8 years). To reduce the variable set, we first developed a measurement model of wellbeing using the survey data with exploratory then confirmatory factor analyses, arriving at four factors: general wellbeing, engagement, social trust, and self-confidence. A structural equation model that accounted for age, gender, race, childhood SES, and years in private school revealed that attending Montessori for at least two childhood years was associated with significantly higher adult wellbeing on all four factors. A second analysis found that the difference in wellbeing between Montessori and conventional schools existed even among the subsample that had exclusively attended private schools. A third analysis found that the more years one attended Montessori, the higher one's wellbeing as an adult. Unmeasured selection effects could explain the results, in which case research should determine what third variable associated with Montessori schooling causes adult wellbeing. Several other limitations to the study are also discussed. Although some of these limitations need to be addressed, coupled with other research, including studies in which children were randomly assigned to Montessori schools, this study suggests that attending Montessori as a child might plausibly cause higher adult wellbeing.

Structural brain abnormalities in epilepsy with myoclonic atonic seizures

OBJECTIVE

Epilepsy with myoclonic atonic seizure (EMAS) occurs in young children with previously normal to subnormal development. The outcome ranges from seizure freedom with preserved cognitive abilities to refractory epilepsy with intellectual disability (ID). Routine brain imaging typically shows no abnormalities. We aimed to compare the brain morphometry of EMAS patients with healthy subjects several years after epilepsy onset, and to correlate it to epilepsy severity and cognitive findings.

METHODS

Fourteen EMAS patients (4 females, 5-14 years) and 14 matched healthy controls were included. Patients were classified into three outcome groups (good, intermediate, poor) according to seizure control and cognitive and behavioral functioning. Individual anatomical data (T1-weighted sequence) were processed using the FreeSurfer pipeline. Cortical volume (CV), cortical thickness (CT), local gyrification index (LGI), and subcortical volumes were used for group-comparison and linear regression analyses.

RESULTS

Morphometric comparison between EMAS patients and healthy controls revealed that patients have 1) reduced CV in frontal, temporal and parietal lobes (p = <.001; 0.009 and 0.024 respectively); 2) reduced CT and LGI in frontal lobes (p = 0.036 and 0.032 respectively); and 3) a neat cerebellar volume reduction (p = 0.011). Neither the number of anti-seizure medication nor the duration of epilepsy was related to cerebellar volume (both p > 0.62). Poor outcome group was associated with lower LGI. Patients in good and intermediate outcome groups had a comparable LGI to their matched healthy controls (p > 0.27 for all lobes).

CONCLUSIONS

Structural brain differences were detectable in our sample of children with EMAS, mainly located in the frontal lobes and cerebellum. These findings are similar to those found in patients with genetic/idiopathic generalized epilepsies. Outcome groups correlated best with LGI. Whether these anatomical changes reflect genetically determined abnormal neuronal networks or a consequence of sustained epilepsy remains to be solved with prospective longitudinal studies.

Children's automatic evaluation of self-generated actions is different from adults

Performance monitoring (PM) is central to learning and decision making. It allows individuals to swiftly detect deviations between actions and intentions, such as response errors, and adapt behavior accordingly. Previous research showed that in adult participants, error monitoring is associated with two distinct and robust behavioral effects. First, a systematic slowing down of reaction time speed is typically observed following error commission, which is known as post-error slowing (PES). Second, response errors have been reported to be automatically evaluated as negative events in adults. However, it remains unclear whether (1) children process response errors as adults do (PES), (2) they also evaluate them as negative events, and (3) their responses vary according to the pedagogy experienced. To address these questions, we adapted a simple decision-making task previously validated in adults to measure PES as well as the affective processing of response errors. We recruited 8- to 12-year-old children enrolled in traditional (N = 56) or Montessori (N = 45) schools, and compared them to adults (N = 46) on the exact same task. Results showed that children processed correct actions as positive events, and that adults processed errors as negative events. By contrast, PES was similarly observed in all groups. Moreover, the former effect was observed in traditional schoolchildren, but not in Montessori schoolchildren. These findings suggest that unlike PES, which likely reflects an age-invariant attention orienting toward response errors, their affective processing depends on both age and pedagogy.