Switch detection in preschoolers’ cognitive flexibility

Choice and Strategy Use Facilitate Preschoolers' Cognitive Flexibility

In some cases, children perform better in tasks that allow them to make active choices. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying this facilitation remain uninvestigated. One possibility is that choice aids children’s cognitive flexibility, which develops rapidly during the preschool period. In Experiment 1, we assessed whether 5-year-olds more flexibly switched tasks when allowed to choose ...

Cognitive flexibility in preschoolers: the role of representation activation and maintenance.

Preschoolers' lack of cognitive flexibility has often been attributed to perseverative processing. This study investigates alternative potential sources of difficulty such as deficits in activating previously ignored information and in maintaining currently relevant information. In Experiment 1, a new task tapping attentional switching was designed to isolate the difficulty of overriding an ini...

Apple, pomme, manzana: Productive vocabulary and cognitive flexibility in bilingual preschoolers

Little is known about how the experience of being bilingual and speaking two languages leads to advantages in cognitive control and flexibility (e.g., Bialystok &Martin, 2004). This study investigated productive vocabulary and knowledge of translation equivalents (TEs) as possible mechanisms underlying the bilingual advantage in cognitive flexibility and control. Spanish-English bilingual two-y...

Cognitive Flexibility

DOOM'd to Switch: Superior Cognitive Flexibility in Players of First Person Shooter Games

The interest in the influence of videogame experience on our daily life is constantly growing. "First Person Shooter" (FPS) games require players to develop a flexible mindset to rapidly react to fast moving visual and auditory stimuli, and to switch back and forth between different subtasks. This study investigated whether and to which degree experience with such videogames generalizes to othe...