The development of executive function in early childhood

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Executive function development involves increasing rule complexity in children.
• Cognitive Complexity and Control (CCC) theory posits age-related gains in rule formulation and use.
• Alternative theories include memory, inhibition, and redescription accounts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test hypotheses from CCC theory and alternative perspectives on executive function development.
• To investigate children's ability to use rules of varying complexity and conflict.
• To refine the CCC theory based on empirical findings.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task across four studies and nine experiments.
• Manipulated rule complexity (uni- vs. bidimensional), rule conflict, and stimulus characteristics.
• Assessed children's performance in sorting cards based on different rule sets.

Main Results:

• Children's perseveration on the DCCS is not solely due to memory limitations.
• Rule conflict is a key factor in task difficulty, interacting with rule dimensionality.
• Conflict effects arise from specific rules, not just stimulus configurations.
• Negative priming may also contribute to DCCS difficulty.

Conclusions:

• Results support a revised CCC theory (CCC-r).
• The revised theory clarifies conditions for rule complexity difficulties.
• CCC-r emphasizes intentionality, rule activation/inhibition, and accurate task complexity assessment.