TY - JOUR
T1 - Voluntary task switching in children
T2 - Switching more reduces the cost of task selection
AU - Frick, Aurélien
AU - Brandimonte, Maria A.
AU - Chevalier, Nicolas
PY - 2019/5/16
Y1 - 2019/5/16
N2 - Emerging cognitive control supports increasingly efficient goal-directed. With age, children are increasingly expected to decide autonomously and with little external aid which goals to attain. However, little is known about how children engage cognitive control in such a self-directed fashion. The present study examines self-directed control development by adapting the voluntary task switching paradigm—the gold standard measure of this control form in adults—for use with 5-6 year-old and 9-10 year-old children. Overall, p(switch) suggests that even younger children can engage self-directed control successfully. However, other measures showed they struggled with task selection. Specifically, compared with older children and adults, they relied more on systematic strategies which reduced the cost of task selection, even when the strategy involved switching more often. Like externally driven control, self-directed control relies critically on task selection processes. These two forms of control likely form a continuum rather than two discrete categories.
AB - Emerging cognitive control supports increasingly efficient goal-directed. With age, children are increasingly expected to decide autonomously and with little external aid which goals to attain. However, little is known about how children engage cognitive control in such a self-directed fashion. The present study examines self-directed control development by adapting the voluntary task switching paradigm—the gold standard measure of this control form in adults—for use with 5-6 year-old and 9-10 year-old children. Overall, p(switch) suggests that even younger children can engage self-directed control successfully. However, other measures showed they struggled with task selection. Specifically, compared with older children and adults, they relied more on systematic strategies which reduced the cost of task selection, even when the strategy involved switching more often. Like externally driven control, self-directed control relies critically on task selection processes. These two forms of control likely form a continuum rather than two discrete categories.
KW - self-directed control
KW - cognitive control
KW - voluntary task switching
KW - endogenous control
KW - cognitive development
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=%22Voluntary+task+switching+in+children%22
U2 - 10.1037/dev0000757
DO - 10.1037/dev0000757
M3 - Article
JO - Developmental Psychology
JF - Developmental Psychology
SN - 0012-1649
ER -