Children typically perseverate on the Dimensional Change Card Sort at age 3 but can switch sorting rules from age 4¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2022: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Three-year-olds typically keep applying the first sorting rule when they should switch, whereas children from age 4 can switch rules on the DCCS. → Buttelmann F and Karbach J 2017
Evidence¶
Buttelmann F and Karbach J 2017¶
Buttelmann F and Karbach J (2017). Development and Plasticity of Cognitive Flexibility in Early and Middle Childhood. Front. Psychol. 8:1040. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01040
q2 · i? · review · r2
Narrative review of DCCS studies of preschoolers, citing Zelazo and Doebel and Zelazo. The review reports that "3-years-old typically perseverate" while children from age 4 switch rules; no effect size is printed.
"While children from the age of 4 years are able to switch the rules, 3-years-old typically perseverate and keep applying the first rule when they should apply the second one"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- 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 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Children's cognitive flexibility improved on average from preschool to first grade — related
- The proportion of perseverators declines steeply across the preschool period, from 38% at age 3;9 to 8% at age 5;3 — 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
- Feedback on post-switch sorting improves preschoolers' DCCS performance and transfers to a novel DCCS version — related
- Metacognitive reflection training improves young children's DCCS performance, with behavioral and neural changes — related
- Foster children who received the control intervention scored significantly lower on the post-switch task than never-fostered comparison children — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
dccs-rule-switching-emerges-age-four |
title |
Children typically perseverate on the Dimensional Change Card Sort at age 3 but can switch sorting rules from age 4 |
description |
Children typically perseverate on the Dimensional Change Card Sort at age 3 but can switch sorting rules from age 4 |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2017 |
recheck_by |
2022 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — buttelmann-f-and-karbach-j-2017 |
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