When children succeed in changing their responses: Insights from three versions of a flexible categorization task

Abstract

Cognitive flexibility is a hallmark of human cognition, but its development is still poorly understood. The present work examined the flexibility of categorization in preschool children. Thirty-three participants aged 3–4 years were divided into three groups, with each group receiving a different version of a flexible categorization task in which the targets belonged to two distinct categories. These versions manipulated the type of questions that were asked and the alternation of shape and color games. The children exhibited flexibility when the questions were specific (or asked about attributes). The results support the idea that instructions play a role in children’s performance in sorting tasks. Considering cognitive flexibility as an expression of the interaction between children’s knowledge and abilities on the one hand and the structure, specifics, or demands of the task on the other can help clarify what cognitive flexibility is and how it develops.

Keywords:

• Categorization
• cognitive flexibility
• shifting
• task demands
• preschoolers

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the children and their parents, and Kindergarten Mica Sirena from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for participating in the study; the research assistants in the Developmental Psychology Lab at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for helping with data collection and coding; and Linda B. Smith and Rima Hanania for insightful comments on the conditions of the FC task. Special thanks go to Anita Todd, who edited the manuscript, and to Iosif Dohi, who edited the figure.

Notes

1 I wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out.