CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN
COGNITION & NEUROSCIENCES/ConnexConnex

Cognitive development is generally conceived as incremental with knowledge of increasing complexity acquired throughout childhood and adolescence. However, a growing number of findings suggest that infants possess complex cognitive abilities but also that older children, adolescents, and adults tend to make systematic errors even in simple logical reasoning tasks. Errors can emerge in problems similar to the ones infants or young children were succeeding when older children, adolescents, and adults rely on a misleading strategy to solve such problems. I will present convergent evidence that overcoming these errors relies on the ability to inhibit previously acquired knowledge or strategies in various cognitive domains and school learning. I will then present findings from lab and citizen science projects with teachers showing that meta-cognitive interventions based on learning to inhibit misleading strategies can help children, adolescents and adults overcome systematic difficulties in logical tasks and school learning.