A Research On Abstraction And Cognitive Flexibility In Preschoolers

It's very significant to know how the abstraction and cognitive flexibility develop in preschoolers because they are important parts of preschool psychological development.For assessing more efficiently abstraction and cognitive flexibility in preschoolers, this research made a new measuring tool named Abstraction and Cognitive Flexibility Task (ACFT) based on Flexible Item Selection Task(FIST). Abstraction and cognitive flexibility were assessed in preschoolers at 2, 3, 4, 5 years of age using ACFT. The conclusions are :(1) The preschoolers of 2-year-olds have no abstraction abilities and cognitive flexibility, and they have difficulties in understanding research directions.(2) There are significant difference among 3, 4, 5 years of age preschoolers. Three-year-olds did more poorly with the abstraction component of the task than 4- and 5- year-olds (who performed near ceiling) while four-year-olds did more poorly than five-year-olds but better than three-year-olds.(3) On Selection 2, when no information about the dimensions, there were significant difference among 3, 4, 5 years of age with cognitive flexibility component of the task, but there was no difference between 3- and 4- year-olds. Three-year-olds did more poorly than 4-and 5-year-olds with the same task.