A study that followed the same children from ages 7 to 14 found less effective statistical learning as they grew older.
Researchers assessed the same participants at ages 7, 8, 11 and 14 to track statistical learning—the ability to detect patterns and use them to predict what comes next. Using statistical analyses of change over time, they found that statistical learning declined with age.
The study also found that higher executive functions were associated with this decline. The authors say the results provide evidence that statistical learning is more effective in early childhood than later in development.
Statistical learning declined as the participants grew older. The study assessed the same children at ages 7, 8, 11 and 14, and found that higher executive functions—cognitive abilities involved in higher-order, goal-directed behavior—were associated with the decline.
Statistical learning helps people identify patterns in their surroundings and predict future events, supporting motor, cognitive and language-related skills. Clarifying how this ability changes during development may help researchers better understand the development of these skills, although the study does not establish why statistical learning declines.
This was a longitudinal study, meaning the researchers tested the same participants at multiple ages rather than comparing different age groups only once. They used linear mixed models and latent class analyses to examine changes and patterns in the data. The abstract does not report the number of participants, the specific learning tasks or how representative the sample was, so the findings’ broader applicability cannot be assessed from the available information. The association with executive functions also does not show that those abilities caused the decline.
Nature Communications · 2026 · DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-77261-1
Authors: Eszter Tóth-Fáber, Bence Csaba Farkas, Tímea Harmath-Tánczos, Dezső Németh, Karolina Janacsek
Institutions: Inserm, University of Szeged, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Lyon 1 Université, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Eötvös Loránd University, École Normale Supérieure - PSL, Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, University of Greenwich
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