Preschoolers' Win-Stay/Lose-Shift Strategy Use in the Children's Gambling Task

Adaptive decision-making requires flexible responses to environmental feedback and integration of information over time. Win-stay/lose-shift strategies describe immediate responses to outcomes: repeating a choice after a win (win-stay) or switching after a loss (lose-shift). Although these strategies have been examined using the Preschool Gambling Task, no study has investigated them in the widely used Children's Gambling Task (CGT) to our knowledge. Our primary aim was to examine whether preschoolers adjust these strategies as they learn environmental contingencies. Using a shortened (40-trial) CGT with one advantageous deck (smaller rewards, smaller losses, net gains) and one disadvantageous deck (bigger rewards, bigger losses, net losses), we investigated strategy use in typically developing 3-5-year-old children (N = 98; 63% female; 88% white; 96% college-educated caregivers). A secondary aim examined whether higher cognitive self-regulation-executive function (EF) and metacognition-improves children's effective deck-specific strategy use. Results showed preschoolers increasingly adopted win-stay in the advantageous deck but showed reduced lose-shift over time regardless of deck. Three-year-olds used significantly less lose-shift than 4-to-5-year-olds. Critically, metacognition-but not EF-uniquely predicted deck-specific strategies: children who knew which deck was better used more win-stay in the advantageous deck and more lose-shift in the disadvantageous deck, controlling for age, verbal ability, and strategy use in the opposite deck. These findings illuminate preschoolers' strategic adaptation and highlight metacognition as a key driver of adaptive decision-making.