Preliminary Research On Cognitive Flexibility Paradigm And Its Application

We adopted the unity paradigm,Target Choose Task(TCT)that is adapted from the standard version of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST),to probe the developmental profile and critical period of the cognitive flexibility and its relationship with mathematical achievements for wider age range children.TCT concerns individual's cognitive flexibility,which concerns the ability whether one could hold or revise initial hypotheses flexibly according to different feedback in rule acquisition.The current research carried out the following two experiments.In experiment 1,The cognitive flexibility(set shifting)was investigated with TCT.There were 181 participants.Twenty-four participants also participated in the computer version of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST).The results were following:(1)All TCT scores showed a positive skewed distribution;(2)Passing rate ranged from 0.32 to 0.66 in TCT;(3)High-scoring group had significantly higher TCT score than that of low-scoring group;(4)The split-half reliability coefficient was calculated.One half text items significantly correlated with the other half;(5)The TCT score respectively had significant positive correlations with Categories Completed(CC)and Conceptual Level Responses(CLR)of WCST.In summary,psychometric properties analysis showed that TCT proved to have terrific internal consistency,criterion-related validity,and appropriate distinction index and difficulty.It is a reasonable method of investigating the development of cognitive flexibility of the children(5-11 years old).TCT particularly focuses on whether children could flexibly hold or revise assumptions in rule acquisition according to the different feedback.In experiment 2,Age-related changes in cognitive flexibility and its relationship with mathematical achievements were assessed by 548 children(5-11 years old)with a Target Choose Task Application(TCT APP).B Error,namely,Preservative Error that is committed in TCT series as the subject fails to shift to a previously irrelevant category.It reflects a failure to select a new perceptual category and to shift from the previously reinforced one(Owen,Roberts,Hodges,& Robbins,1993;Dias,Robbins,& Roberts,1996).In contrast,A Error,namely,Non-preservative Error results from a failure to maintain attention within the same perceptual category while inhibiting the distracting interference of co-existing stimuli.Thus,Non-preservative Error in TCT trials can be regarded as a distraction,and has not been so often related to dorsolateral prefrontal damage(Milner,Corkin,& Teuber,1968;Heaton,Chelune,Talley,Kay,& Curtiss,1981).The results are:(1)As the ages were increasing,the Time Cost was decreasing;(2)Preschool-age children got significantly less Total Number of Correct and more B Error than those of pupils;(3)5-grade primary school children got significantly more Total Number of Correct and less B Error than those of 3-grade primary school children;(4)There have been no significant differences for both Total Number of Correct and B Error between 1-grade primary school children and 3-grade primary school children;(5)There was significant relationship between the two key indicators of TCT(i.e.Total Number of Correct and B Error)and mathematical achievements in pupil.These results indicated:(1)With increasing age,cognitive flexibility of children(5-11 years old)develops continuously.At the first year and from grade 3 to grade 5 at primary school,rapid development stages of the cognitive flexibility occur.(2)Cognitive flexibility correlates with thinking training courses,namely,mathematical achievements.The implications of these results are discussed.