Cognitive flexibility in young children: General or task-specific capacity?

Deák, Gedeon O.; Wiseheart, Melody

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.04.003

Cited by 82 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(91 reference statements)

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“…Specifically, attention control lies at the bottom of the hierarchy because it is very basic, keeping mental focus on target against salient but irrelevant object characteristics [Diamond, 2013]. Flexibility in shifting across stimuli or responses according to complementary goals is the next level in the hierarchy because it brings mental focus under the executive control of the thinker, allowing deployment of mental or behavioral plans [Deak & Wiseheart, 2015]. Working memory resides higher because it involves, in addition to an executive program, information to be stored and related storage and recall processes [Baddeley, 2012;Cowan, 2016].…”

Section: Is There a Developmental G?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Dimensions of General Intelligence: An Integrated Differential-Developmental Theory

et al. 2018

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We present a theory of mental architecture and development focusing on general intelligence (g). The theory integrates psychometric and developmental theories of intelligence into an overarching framework. The paper first focuses on the composition of g. It is shown that g involves attention control, flexibility, working memory, cognizance of mental processes, and inference. We then present a model of intellectual development involving four cycles - episodic, realistic representation-based, rule-based, and principle-based thought - and summarize several studies showing how the processes involved in g interact in each cycle. We then present research aiming to increase intelligence. Finally, we discuss the implications of this theory for psychometric, cognitive, and developmental science and show how it solves long-standing theoretical and practical problems not solved by other theories, such as the decreasing likelihood of attaining high intelligence, the differentiation of abilities with development, and the training fade-out problem.

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Section: Is There a Developmental G?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Dimensions of General Intelligence: An Integrated Differential-Developmental Theory

et al. 2018

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“…This is a question that itself is open to discussion. Some have suggested that set-shifting does not represent a global trait that can be captured by a single measure (Deák & Wiseheart, 2015). Of course, if there is no general switching mechanism, then frequent language switching could not possibly benefit task switching.…”

Section: A General Switch Mechanism?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A relative bilingual advantage in switching with preparation: Nuanced explorations of the proposed association between bilingualism and task switching.

Stasenko¹,

Matt²,

Gollan³

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Bilingual language switching may increase general switching efficiency, but the evidence on this question is mixed. We hypothesized that group differences in switching might be stronger at a long cue-target interval (CTI), which may better tap general switching abilities (Yehene & Meiran, 2007). Eighty Spanish-English bilinguals and 80 monolinguals completed a color-shape switching task, and an analogous language-switching task, varying CTI (short versus long) in both tasks. With longer preparation time (long CTI), bilinguals exhibited significantly smaller task-switching costs than monolinguals, but only in the first half of trials. Group differences diminished with practice, though practice benefitted RTs on short CTI trials more than long, and bilinguals committed fewer errors with practice especially at short CTI. Groups did not differ in mixing costs; however, across CTIs and tasks, bilinguals and monolinguals alike, exhibited robust correlations between mixing costs, but not between switching costs. These results confirm an association between bilingualism and switching efficiency that may be magnified with manipulations that target general switching ability (or could reflect better ability to take advantage of preparation time). However, practice effects observed within experimental paradigms, and between task correlations in costs, may reflect cognitive mechanisms specific to laboratory tasks much more than associations with general switching ability and executive control mechanisms–for which more reliable and valid measures can hopefully be developed in future work.

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“…Resisting distraction from information unrelated to the current task is an essential aspect of goal‐directed behavior. Distraction errors occur on executive function tasks in infants (Diamond, ), toddlers (Zelazo, Reznick, & Spinazzola, ), preschoolers (Blakey et al., ; Brooks, Hanauer, Padowska, & Rosman, ; Chevalier & Blaye, ; Deák & Wiseheart, ), and adolescents (Crone, Ridderinkhof, Worm, Somsen, & van der Molen, ), though we still have little understanding of why they occur. Distraction errors arise when children select a response that is not correct according to either the current rule or the previous rule.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Not All Distractions Are the Same: Investigating Why Preschoolers Make Distraction Errors When Switching

Blakey

Carroll

2017

Child Development

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When switching between tasks, preschoolers frequently make distraction errors—as distinct from perseverative errors. This study examines for the first time why preschoolers make these errors. One hundred and sixty‐four 2‐ and 3‐year‐olds completed one of four different conditions on a rule‐switching task requiring children to sort stimuli according to one rule and then switch to a new rule. Conditions varied according to the type of information that children needed to ignore. Children made significantly more distraction errors when the to‐be‐ignored information was related to the previous rule. When it was not related to a previous rule, even young preschoolers could disregard this information. This demonstrates that distraction errors are caused by children's initial goal representations that continue to affect performance.

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Cognitive flexibility in young children: General or task-specific capacity?

Cited by 82 publications

References 77 publications

Mapping the Dimensions of General Intelligence: An Integrated Differential-Developmental Theory

Mapping the Dimensions of General Intelligence: An Integrated Differential-Developmental Theory

A relative bilingual advantage in switching with preparation: Nuanced explorations of the proposed association between bilingualism and task switching.

Not All Distractions Are the Same: Investigating Why Preschoolers Make Distraction Errors When Switching

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