14 DAY TRIAL // For centuries, children have been educated in the spirit of their families, without too much outside influence, and less influenced by their peers than today. It's arguable whether those children turned out to be individuals or not, but the main point is that they were not subjected to the many perks that children today take for granted, such as electricity, television, the Internet, mobile phones, computers, and so on. Researchers realized some time ago that there were no long-term studies on the consequences of modernization on children's cognitive development, so they proceeded towards fixing this problem.
Their conclusions have been published in the November/December 2009 issue of the respected scientific journal Child Development, e! Science News reports. The cross-cultural investigation was aimed at discovering the widespread implications that the accelerated modernization had on the children's ability to develop strong cognitive skills on their own. The work was conducted by scientists at the University of California in Riverside (UCR), and at the Pitzer College. The team relied on data collected in the early 1970s for the foundation of their inquiry.
“Childhood is changing rapidly around the world. Increased urbanization; massive shifts in economic, political, and social conditions; and changes in how we communicate have a significant impact on children's everyday lives. Better understanding of how intellectual development is shaped and directed by the forces of modernization can give us insights into the psychological consequences of globalization,” UCR Professor of Psychology Mary Gauvain explains. The expert is also the lead author of the new journal entry.
The study revealed that children in more advanced communities performed better in tasks involving various types of memory and pattern recognition, but noted that this was not a proof of the fact that they were more cognitively developed than other young ones in the group. Rather, the researchers say, the complex games and play patterns in which they were involved constituted an indicator of the abilities that were demanded of them in their environment. Overall, the scientists found that modernization did, indeed, stimulate a small rise in IQ levels in children, regardless of their location.