Cognitive flexibility in preschoolers: the role of representation activation and maintenance
Cognitive flexibility in preschoolers: the role of representation activation and maintenance
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00679.x
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发表时间：
2008-05-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Blaye, Agnes
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chevalier, Nicolas;Blaye, Agnes
学龄前儿童缺乏认知灵活性通常归因于持续的加工。这项研究调查了其他潜在的困难来源，例如激活先前被忽略的信息和维护当前相关信息的缺陷。在实验1中，设计了一个利用注意力切换的新任务来隔离覆盖初始表征的难度，即持久处理（“持久”版本），以及激活先前被忽略的表征的难度，即激活缺陷（“激活缺陷”版本）。三岁儿童的表现表明，不灵活可能主要源于激活缺陷。对照实验证实，“激活缺陷”版本的难度不能归因于新奇事物吸引力的影响。在实验 2 中，区分了“分散注意力”错误和“持久性”错误，据称这些错误反映了未能保持相关的表示。结果强调了表征维护在灵活性中的重要作用。本研究表明，学龄前儿童认知灵活性的缺乏是多因素决定的，并促使我们重新考虑毅力的作用。
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 initial representation, that is, perseverative processing ('Perseveration' version), and the difficulty of activating a previously ignored representation, that is, activation deficit ('Activation-deficit' version). Three-year-olds' performance suggested that inflexibility may primarily stem from an activation deficit. Control experiments confirmed that the difficulty of the 'Activation-deficit' version could not be attributed to the effect of attraction to novelty. In Experiment 2, 'distraction' errors, alleged to reflect a failure to maintain a relevant representation, and 'perseverative' errors were distinguished. The results highlighted the important role of representation maintenance in flexibility. The present study indicates that preschoolers' lack of cognitive flexibility is multi-determined and prompts us to reconsider the role of perseveration.