Buss Aaron T, Nikam Bhoomika
University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Department of Psychology.
Cogn Dev. 2020 Jan-Mar;53. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100843. Epub 2019 Dec 10.
The emergence of cognitive flexibility is a central aspect of cognitive development during early childhood. Cognitive flexibility is often probed using verbal rules to instruct behavior. In this study, the types of labels that were provided during instruction were manipulated. In one condition, children were instructed in the standard manner with dimensional labels (e.g., "shape") and featural labels (e.g., "star"). In a second condition, children were provided only with dimensional labels. When switching to color, 4-year-olds performed equally well regardless of the type of instruction. However, when switching to shape, children perseverated at a significantly higher rate when only dimensional labels were provided. These results suggest that children's understanding of labels is a critical aspect of developing cognitive flexibility and that their understanding of the labels "shape" and "color" are different.
认知灵活性的出现是幼儿期认知发展的一个核心方面。认知灵活性通常通过言语规则来指导行为进行探究。在本研究中，指导过程中提供的标签类型受到了操控。在一种情况下，以标准方式用维度标签（如“形状”）和特征标签（如“星星”）指导儿童。在第二种情况下，只向儿童提供维度标签。当转换到颜色时，无论指导类型如何，4岁儿童的表现都同样出色。然而，当转换到形状时，仅提供维度标签时，儿童的固着率显著更高。这些结果表明，儿童对标签的理解是发展认知灵活性的一个关键方面，而且他们对“形状”和“颜色”标签的理解是不同的。
