Why are some inhibitory tasks easy for preschool children when most are difficult? Testing two hypotheses.

Simpson, Andrew, Lipscombe, Stuart and Carroll, Daniel, J. (2022) Why are some inhibitory tasks easy for preschool children when most are difficult? Testing two hypotheses. Journal of experimental child psychology, 220 (105431). ISSN 0022-0965

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Abstract

Understanding the processes that create inhibitory demands is central to understanding the role of inhibitory control in all aspects of development. The processes that create inhibitory demands on most developmental tasks seem clear and well understood. However, there is one inhibitory task that appears substantially easier than the others: the Reverse Categorization task, in which children are asked to "reverse sort" items (e.g., put large items in a small box and put small items in a large box). This finding is both surprising and problematic because it cannot be explained by any existing account of inhibitory development. Four experiments with 3- and 4-year-olds sought to explain why the Reverse Categorization task is easy. Two experiments (N = 64) investigated the hypothesis that children conceptualize the task in a way that reduces its inhibitory demands; and two experiments (N = 56) tested the hypothesis that the task is easier because children sort items slowly. The data indicate that children spontaneously respond more slowly on the Reverse Categorization task than on other inhibitory tasks and that this slowing reduces the task's cognitive demands. The way in which slowed responding works, and its relation to other inhibition-reducing interventions, is discussed. [Abstract copyright: Crown Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.]

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: inhibitory control, reverse categorization task, executive function, preschoolers, response delay, task conceptualization
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Business & Applied Social Science > Department of Applied Social Sciences
SWORD Depositor: Pub Router
Depositing User: Pub Router
Date Deposited: 28 Apr 2022 10:25
Last Modified: 28 Apr 2022 10:25
URI: https://oars.uos.ac.uk/id/eprint/2471

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