Premium
The Role of Negative Priming in Preschoolers' Flexible Rule Use on the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task
Author(s) -
Müller Ulrich,
Steven Dick Anthony,
Gela Katherine,
Overton Willis F.,
Zelazo Philip David
Publication year - 2006
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/j.1467-8624.2006.00878.x
Subject(s) - card sorting , negative priming , priming (agriculture) , psychology , task (project management) , sort , cognitive development , wisconsin card sorting test , developmental psychology , child development , dimension (graph theory) , cognitive psychology , cognition , arithmetic , neuroscience , selective attention , neuropsychology , economics , biology , pure mathematics , botany , germination , management , mathematics
Four experiments examined the development of negative priming (NP) in 3–5‐year‐old children using as a measure of children's executive function (EF) the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) task. In the NP version of the DCCS, the values of the sorting dimension that is relevant during the preswitch phase are removed during the postswitch phase. The experiments showed that the NP effect observed in the DCCS decreased during the preschool years, and they clarified the circumstances in which NP occurs. Taken together, the findings suggest that the development of EF in early childhood consists in part in disinhibiting attention to information that has previously been suppressed.