Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France.
Front Psychol. 2013 Dec 10;4:924. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00924. eCollection 2013.
The present study aimed at determining whether (1) children were able to interrupt a strategy execution to switch and choose another better strategy, and (2) their ability to switch strategy within-item improved with age. Third, fifth, and seventh graders performed a computational estimation task in which they had to provide the better estimates to two-digit addition problems (e.g., 32 + 54) while using the rounding-down (e.g., 30 + 50) or the rounding-up strategy (e.g., 40 + 60). After having executing the cued strategy (e.g., 30 + 50) during 1,000 ms, participants were given the opportunity to switch to another better strategy (e.g., 40 + 60) or to repeat the same strategy (e.g., 30 + 50). The results showed that children switched strategies within items, and were able to switch more often when the addition problems were cued with the poorer strategy (e.g., 40 + 60 for 32 + 54) than when cued with the better strategy (e.g., 30 + 50). As they grew up, children based their decisions to switch strategies more often on whether the 1,000-ms strategy execution concerned the better strategy or strategy difficulty (i.e., the rounding-up strategy). These findings have important implications to further understand mechanisms underlying within-item strategy switching as well as strategic variations in children.
(1) 儿童是否能够中断策略执行以切换并选择另一种更好的策略；(2) 他们在项目内切换策略的能力是否随年龄增长而提高。第三、五和七年级的学生进行了一项计算估计任务，他们必须在使用向下取整策略（例如 30 + 50）或向上取整策略（例如 40 + 60）为两位数加法问题（例如 32 + 54）提供更好的估计值。在执行提示策略（例如 30 + 50）1000 毫秒后，参与者有机会切换到另一种更好的策略（例如 40 + 60）或重复相同的策略（例如 30 + 50）。结果表明，儿童在项目内切换策略，并且当加法问题使用较差的策略（例如 40 + 60 用于 32 + 54）提示时，比使用较好的策略（例如 30 + 50）提示时更频繁地切换策略。随着他们的成长，儿童更频繁地根据 1000 毫秒策略执行是否涉及更好的策略或策略难度（即向上取整策略）来决定是否切换策略。这些发现对进一步理解项目内策略切换的机制以及儿童的策略变化具有重要意义。
