Model perseveration explicitly when computing switch costs in young children¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The article recommends explicitly modeling and accounting for perseveration when computing mixing and local costs in preschoolers, because children who perseverate on a single task show "artificially inflated mixing costs" and "artificially reduced local costs" under traditional difference scores. The authors identified perseverators via the binomial distribution (responding on one dimension on three or fewer or eleven or more trials) and included a perseverator grouping variable in all multilevel models. This strategy preserved meaningful cost estimates for children who switch correctly while separating those with conceptual misunderstanding of task requirements.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A sufficient trial count within the switch condition to classify responding against chance using the binomial distribution

Constraints¶

• Random switching strategies that are difficult to detect cannot be modeled and may still affect cost magnitudes

Target Learners¶

• preschool children with emerging flexibility skills, especially 3-year-olds

Target Learning Goals¶

• accurate measurement of switch-cost components in developing populations

Related Strategies¶

• Use multilevel modeling rather than difference scores to analyze switch costs with continuous predictors

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Chevalier N., Sheffield T. D., Nelson J. M., Clark C. A. C., Wiebe S. A., Espy K. A. (2012). Underpinnings of the Costs of Flexibility in Preschool Children: The Roles of Inhibition and Working Memory. Developmental Neuropsychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308575/