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 no 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 rapid mental calculations.

This

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

For example

, a recent Cambridge

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 activity.

Such

predictive powers clearly improve players' 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 of the

study

group

.

For example

, a

study

by The British Institute for Learning found that, if

individuals

participated in

study

groups

, they had a far more objective and sophisticated understanding of a topic than learners who were not part of

study

groups

.

Therefore

, it is certainly the case that learning in a

group

improves an individual’s mental abilities. In conclusion, I strongly agree with the notion that

group

activities improve intellectual abilities. In the future, we will certainly see schools take greater measures to ensure that more

group

-level cognition occurs in the classroom.