Irrelevant thoughts and attentional inertia

Tue, 08/28/2007 - 14:23 - NLN

In the Dimensional Change Card sorting (DCCS) task, 3-year-olds can usually sort cards successfully by a first rule -- whether by shape, color, size, etc. When asked to switch then to another rule, most 3-year-olds will perseverate by continuing to sort cards according to the first and now-irrelevant rule. This occurs even when the current rule is repeated every single time they're asked to sort a card!

Children will even correctly repeat the name of the rule they should be using, and then proceed to actually sort the card by the old rule.

By age 4, however, most kids are able to successfully switch to a second rule (though many will still have trouble when asked to switch again). What then changes between 3 and 4 to allow this shift away from a remarkably strange behavior?

Read full story in Developing Intelligence