ranjit my hypothesis is that adults might be less efficient at learning but the mechanism by which they learn can be the same.
This is super interesting. With regard to (foreign) language learning, there are a few “camps” among researchers who compare language learning (first/native language and second/foreign language) in children and adults. For example, some researchers argue that language learning is different (in terms of being unique, undergoing different processes) from other kinds of learning, while others argue that language learning and other kinds of learning are all basically the same cognitive processes. While I’m most familiar with these studies in the context of language learning, the question is essentially relevant: is cognitive learning one activity with similar (same) processes/mechanisms? Or are different kinds of learning the result of different processes? And if so, are the differences qualitative or quantitative?
This is sort like the umbrella question above the question embedded in @ranjit ’s hypothesis, “do children and adults learn piano technique in the same way“
So regarding the idea that children form new neural pathways faster than adults…. With regard to language learning, it’s popularly believed that children are “better” at language learning than adults, but the reality is more complicated. There are some areas in which children consistently have better learning outcomes in a foreign language than adults, the most prominent one being development of a native-like accent. But adults generally struggle with this much more and many tend to retain a “foreign accent” indefinitely. OTOH with regard to vocabulary learning, conceptual learning and grammatical complexity, adults often do better than children, presumably because adults know more about the world, have a fully developed native language, and often have greater (or more explicit, more specific) motivation than children.
So the accent findings might suggest that, because the outcome is different, the process (or mechanism, if you prefer) of learning is different for adults and children. A qualitative difference.
But the other findings (vocabulary learning etc.) might just suggest that it’s a matter of content, a quantitative difference.
So, is all of this relevant to piano learning? That takes us back to the question of whether you think learning, he cognitive mechanism of learning, is all basically the process, or you think different kinds of learning are based on different processes.
It seems likely to me that, if learning is all the same, then children and adults would learn piano technique in mostly the same ways, and the issue would be quantitative, a difference in efficiency.
But if there are different types of cognitive processes involved in different types of learning, then it would be more likely that adults and children are actually doing different things (cognitively) when they learn piano technique. And in that case, then the issue would be qualitative, a difference of kind, not speed or efficiency.
Ok sorry this has gotten quite long. I’ll stop here! 😅
This seems like something Noa Kageyama, the BulletProof Musician, would write about… I wonder if he has.