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Unifying representations and responses: perseverative biases arise from a single behavioral system
John P Spencer1, Anne R Schutte
1Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242, USA. john-spencer@uiowa.edu
Psychological Science
|March 17, 2004
Summary
Perseverative errors in children can stem from a failure to inhibit a prepotent representation, not just a prepotent response. This suggests current developmental theories of cognitive control may be incomplete.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Child Development
Background:
- Perseverative errors are common in early development.
- A dominant theory attributes these errors to a failure to inhibit prepotent responses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if perseverative errors can also arise from a failure to inhibit prepotent representations.
- To challenge the completeness of the prepotent-response account of perseveration.
Main Methods:
- Children observed a toy hidden at location A six times.
- Following a delay, the toy was hidden at location B, and children searched.
- Two- and 4-year-olds' search behavior was analyzed.
Main Results:
- Children showed a significant bias towards searching at location A, even when the toy was at location B.
- This bias occurred despite no overt response to location A during the search phase.
Conclusions:
- Perseverative biases in early development can originate from prepotent representations.
- The prepotent-response account alone is insufficient to explain all perseverative errors.
- Findings suggest representational and response-based biases may be part of an integrated system.