Improvements in cognitive flexibility during the preschool years have been linked to developments in both working memory and inhibitory control, though the precise contribution of each remains unclear. In the current study, one hundred and twenty 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds completed two rule-switching tasks. In one version, children switched rules in…

In one of the first open diffusion experiments with young children, a tool-use task that afforded multiple methods to extract an enclosed reward and a child model habitually using one of these methods were introduced into different playgroups. Eighty-eight children, ranging in age from 2 years 8 months to 4 years 5 months, participated. Measures…

Relates the problem-solving behavior of second, fourth, and sixth graders to conceptual tempo. Correlations with indices of strategic and efficient performance on a pattern-matching task confirmed that reflectives are more strategic than impulsives. A task-analysis identified the sources of inefficiency for each child and related these sources to…