A Study On The Reason For Preschool Children's Difficulties With The Windows Task

The existing experiment results indicate that the windows task is difficult for preschoolers. This has led to the suggestion that children's difficulty is with the executive requirement that they inhibit the prepotent response of pointing to the desired object in many studies or with rule inference in some studies. The current study divide executive function tasks into rule use tasks and rule induction tasks and divide the inhibitory requirement into rejecting tempter and inhibiting conflict, in order to find out what makes the windows task difficult. The current study includes three experiments. In experiment one, we present 60 3-year-olds with four tasks: the standard windows task, a version of the windows task that required rule use but no rule induction, and two versions of the day-night task, in order to find out what makes the windows task difficult: rule induction or rule use. In experiment two, we present neutral condition comparing with positive condition, in order to find out the influence of "rejecting tempter". In experiment three, we present negative condition in order to examine the influence of "inhibiting conflict". Under the condition of this study, the conclusions are as follows(1) Children's performance on rule use windows task is better than standard windows task, indicates that rule induction is one reason for the windows task but not the only one.(2) Children's performance on rule use windows task is significantly correlated with their performance on day-night point task, even if age is partialled out. It indicates that inhibitory control an work memory may be the same executive function of them.(3) There is no difference between neutral condition and positive condition, indicates that "rejecting tempter" is not the reason for the windows task. The reason for the difficulty is not the requirement of inhibiting the response of pointing to the desired object, but the requirement of inhibiting the salient knowledge about object locations.(4) There is no difference between negative condition and neutral condition. Emotion cannot affect children's prepotent response of pointing the true position, indicates that the genuine prepotent response is "inhibiting conflict", and it is the genuine reason for the difficulties of the windows task.