Some people think that a person improves their intellectual skills more when doing group activities. To what extent do you agree? Use specific details and examples to explain your view.

In recent decades, many researchers have studied the importance of group-level cognition. Indeed, to my mind, there is now convincing evidence that group activities improve the intelligence of individuals. In

this

essay, I shall examine how research in team-games and study-groups supports

this

view.

To begin

with, team-games clearly require individuals to perform a diverse range of mental calculations.

This

is because, in a sporting context, players must predict and anticipate possible actions within tight time constraints.

For example

, a recent study showed that soccer players can - within the span of seconds - calculate over a dozen different permutations that could result from a single soccer related action.

Such

predictive powers clearly improve player's mental abilities and result from activities performed in a group context.

Secondly

, study-groups enable individuals to obtain information that they could not acquire in isolation.

This

is because peer feedback allows individuals to refine their understanding of concepts and to

also

learn new information from other members in the study-group.

For example

, according to a study, if individuals participated in the study-groups, they had a far more objective and sophisticated understanding of a topic than learners who were not part of a study-group.

Therefore

, it is certainly the case that learning in a study-group improves an individual's mental abilities. In conclusion, I strongly agree with the notion that group activities improve intellectual abilities of the individuals who participate actively. In the future, we will certainly see schools take greater measures to ensure that more group-level cognition occurs in the classroom.