Hidden-prize marking and transfer task paradigm for assessing children's spontaneous external reminder-setting strategies¶
Design · All designs
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 causal),q3· 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study
Description¶
A preregistered experimental paradigm in which children watch an experimenter demonstrate how to mark the location of a hidden prize, helping them retrieve it later, and are then given opportunities across six test trials to spontaneously adopt an external marking strategy. Children who used the strategy at least once were introduced to a "conceptually similar but structurally distinct transfer task" to assess strategy flexibility. It measures self-initiated external metacognitive strategy use across ages 3–8.
Design Implications¶
Context¶
Requirements¶
- An experimenter demonstration of marking the hidden prize's location before test trials
- A conceptually similar but structurally distinct transfer task for assessing strategy modification
Constraints¶
- Studied with 3–8-year-olds (N = 72, mostly White) in Australia; scope limited to that sample and setting
Target Learners¶
- children aged 3 to 8 years
Learning Goals¶
- self-initiated use of external cognitive strategies to offload internal cognitive demand
Claims¶
- Most 3-year-olds deployed a demonstrated external marking strategy, but none modified it to solve a conceptually similar transfer task [+W]
- From age 4, children spontaneously devise multiple previously unseen reminder-setting strategies across transfer trials, with this tendency increasing with age [+W]
- Young children can self-initiate external metacognitive strategies and transfer them across contexts, with flexibility increasing over the preschool and early school years [+W]
- From age 6, children deploy effective external strategies on most trials, with strategy number, combination, and order varying widely within and across age groups [+W]
Related Designs¶
Examples¶
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Key Sources¶
- Armitage, KL; Suddendorf, T; Bulley, A; Bastos, APM; Taylor, AH; Redshaw, J. (2023). Creativity and Flexibility in Young Children's Use of External Cognitive Strategies. Developmental Psychology, 59 (6), pp. 995-1005. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001562
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
design |
id |
hidden-prize-marking-transfer-paradigm |
title |
Hidden-prize marking and transfer task paradigm for assessing children's spontaneous external reminder-setting strategies |
description |
A preregistered experimental paradigm in which children watch an experimenter demonstrate how to mark the location of a hidden prize, helping them retrieve it later, and are then given opportunities across six test tr... |
status |
review |
generated |
by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-17 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — armitage-2023 |
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