Does using multiple strategies enhance preschoolers' persistence in a challenging task?

Persistence, characterized by continued efforts in the face of difficulties, is crucial for children's success. Many researchers have aimed to identify the factors that improve persistence. Previous research has found that children who use more strategies to solve a challenging task tend to exhibit greater persistence, suggesting that providing instructions for multiple strategies may enhance their persistence. Therefore, this study examined whether telling strategies through verbal instructions and demonstrations affected persistence in 4- and 5-year-old children using an unachievable persistence task. In preregistered Study 1 (N = 150), we instructed children to focus on multiple strategies or a single strategy in a direct or pedagogical manner during the task. No substantial effects of telling strategies through verbal instructions were found on the children's persistence and strategy use. In Study 2 (N = 54), demonstrating strategies did not affect children's persistence; however, demonstrating multiple and single strategies increased and decreased children's number of strategies, respectively. Thus, telling strategies through demonstrations, rather than verbal instructions, affected the number of strategies used by the children; however, the number of strategies used did not affect persistence. An exploratory analysis was conducted to examine why the number of strategies was not related to persistence. We found that independently devising new strategies, rather than following instructions, affected persistence. Furthermore, this relationship was replicated in Study 3 (N = 30). Our findings suggest that children are likely to persevere in challenging tasks by independently devising new strategies rather than following instructions.