Children's cognitive flexibility improved on average from preschool to first grade¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Mean DCCS percent-accuracy scores rose across the three waves, indicating average improvement in cognitive flexibility over early childhood. → Zeytinoglu 2019

Evidence¶

Zeytinoglu 2019¶

Zeytinoglu, S., Calkins, S. D., & Leerkes, E. M. (2019). Maternal emotional support but not cognitive support during problem-solving predicts increases in cognitive flexibility in early childhood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 43(1), 12-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025418757706

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Descriptive analysis of DCCS percent-accuracy composites in the longitudinal sample; Table 2 prints means of 67.12 (preschool), 72.93 (kindergarten), and 82.37 (grade 1). The article states "children’s cognitive flexibility improved over time"; no inferential test of the change is reported.

"The mean of cognitive flexibility scores increased from preschool to subsequent visits, suggesting that, on average, children’s cognitive flexibility improved over time."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Greater maternal emotional support during problem-solving predicts greater child cognitive flexibility one year later, in both the preschool-to-kindergarten and kindergarten-to-first-grade intervals — related
• Metacognitive reflection training improves young children's DCCS performance, with behavioral and neural changes — related
• DCCS training in preschoolers transfers to false-belief understanding — related
• Music training shows mixed effects on cognitive flexibility: positive in some preschool DCCS studies, null in ten others — related
• Feedback on post-switch sorting improves preschoolers' DCCS performance and transfers to a novel DCCS version — related
• Children typically perseverate on the Dimensional Change Card Sort at age 3 but can switch sorting rules from age 4 — related
• Mothers' engagement in positive activities with children remains stable over early childhood while fathers' engagement shows significant linear growth — related
• Foster children who received the ABC intervention in infancy showed stronger cognitive flexibility at preschool age than foster children who received a control intervention — related
• Cognitive flexibility in children is not a unified construct — related
• Preliminary cross-sectional data suggest curiosity may be unaffected by age or schooling in early childhood — related
• No assessed children reached the good or excellent levels for cognitive flexibility — reports the opposite
• Young children can self-initiate external metacognitive strategies and transfer them across contexts, with flexibility increasing over the preschool and early school years — related
• Foster children who received a control intervention showed a specific post-switch (set-shifting) deficit on the card-sort task, with no group difference on the pre-switch trials — related