Cognitive flexibility training in three-year-old children

The Dimensional Change Card-Sorting task (DCCS) is frequently used to assess preschool-children's executive abilities. Children are asked to sort bidimensional cards (a blue boat) first according to one dimension (color) and then according to the other (shape). Redescription theory argues that 3-year-olds' failure in the DCCS is linked to their difficulties in flexibly describing an object on two perceptual dimensions successively when they are integrated within the same object. 103 3-year-old children were tested with the DCCS and 53 were placed in a redescription-training group with two versions of the DCCS. Two separated unidimensional objects on the same card were used for the spatially distinct DCCS. In the interlaced DCCS, color and shape could be separated or superimposed within a single object. Results showed an improvement in DCCS performance after training, particularly when using the interlaced DCCS, underlying the role of redescription in the development of cognitive flexibility.