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Dual Routes to Cognitive Flexibility: Learning and Response‐Conflict Resolution in the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task
Author(s) -
Ramscar Michael,
Dye Melody,
Gustafson Jessica W.,
Klein Joseph
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12044
Subject(s) - card sorting , psychology , cognitive flexibility , context (archaeology) , task (project management) , cognition , flexibility (engineering) , cognitive psychology , sort , wisconsin card sorting test , cognitive development , control (management) , dual (grammatical number) , intervention (counseling) , cognitive science , computer science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , paleontology , art , statistics , mathematics , management , literature , information retrieval , psychiatry , neuropsychology , economics , biology
Cognitive control, the ability to align our actions with goals or context, is largely absent in children under four. How then are preschoolers able to tailor their behavior to best match the situation? Learning may provide an alternative route to context‐sensitive responding. This study investigated this hypothesis in the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), a classic test of cognitive control that most under‐fours fail. A training intervention based on learning theoretic principles proved highly effective: Three‐year‐olds who learned about DCCS rules and game contexts in a card‐labeling task, subsequently transferred this knowledge to sorting in the DCCS , passing at more than 3 times the rate of controls ( N = 47). This surprising finding reveals much about the nature of the developing mind.