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ERIC Number: EJ1209390
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Apr
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Repeated Sequential Action by Young Children: Developmental Changes in Representational Flexibility of Task Context
Yanaoka, Kaichi; Saito, Satoru
Developmental Psychology, v55 n4 p780-792 Apr 2019
A wealth of developmental research suggests that preschoolers are capable of reporting, imitating, and performing sequential actions they engage in routinely. However, few studies have explored the developmental and cognitive mechanisms required for learning how to perform such routines. A previous computational model of routines argued that a representation of task contexts underlying routines could change flexibly. This position was supported by the empirical evidence that if adults are interrupted in the course of a routine, they make fewer errors if they are interrupted just before the selection of context-dependent action than if they are interrupted earlier. Another computational model examined how efficiently adults learned to perform routines and suggested the relationship of learning efficacy with executive functions. The present study aimed to examine whether the above-mentioned models and evidence from adults can be extended to preschoolers by using an experimental task, in which children were required to play the role of a baker and repeatedly make toast for either a cat or mouse, with momentary distractions. Experiment 1 showed that earlier interruption tended to cause older children to produce more branch point errors than interruption immediately before the branch points, whereas younger children tended to be vulnerable to both interruptions. Further, across 2 experiments, this study showed that the developmental differences in how young children represent task contexts were associated with their executive functions. These findings indicate that the representational flexibility of task contexts underlies children's performance of repeated sequential actions and its association with executive functions.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A