scholarly journals Dimensional Change Card Sorting of American Children: Marginalization-Related Diminished Returns of Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. p72
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Dimensional Change ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
White Children ◽  
Card Sort ◽  
Age Related ◽  
American Children ◽  
Dimensional Change Card Sort

Background: While age is associated with an increase in cognitive flexibility and executive functioning as a result of normal development during childhood, less is known about the effect of racial variation in children’s age-related cognitive development. The Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs) phenomenon suggests that, under racism, social stratification, segregation, and discrimination, individual-level economic and non-economic resources and assets show weaker effects on children’s development for marginalized, racialized, and minoritized families. Aim: We conducted this study to compare racial groups of children for age-related changes in their card sorting abilities. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 10,414 9-10-year-old American children. Data came from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The independent variable was age, a continuous variable measured in months. The dependent variable was Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) score, which reflected cognitive flexibility, and was measured by the NIH Dimensional Change Card Sort. Ethnicity, sex, parental education, and marital status were the covariates. Results: Older age was associated with higher DCCS score, reflecting a higher card-sorting ability and cognitive flexibility. However, age showed a weaker association with DCCS for Black than for White children. This was documented by a significantly negative interaction between race and age on children’s DCCS scores. Conclusion: Age shows a weaker correlation with the cognitive flexibility of Black than of White children. A similar pattern can be seen when comparing low-income with high-income children. Conceptualizing race as a social factor that alters normal childhood development is a finding that is in line with MDRs. Marginalization due to social stratification and racism interfere with the normal age-related cognitive development of American children.

scholarly journals Children Only 3 Years Can Succeed At Conditional "If, Then" Reasoning, Much Earlier Than Anyone Had Thought Possible

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne S. Ling ◽  
Cole D. Wong ◽  
Adele Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Conditional Discrimination ◽  
Dimensional Change ◽  
Conditional Reasoning ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Card Sort ◽  
Double Dissociation ◽  
Rule Structure ◽  
Dimensional Change Card Sort ◽  
Boot Strapping ◽  
Physical Dimensions

We report results showing success at 3 years on conditional discrimination (CD) -- 12-18 months younger than previously reported. Three-year-olds succeeded when color was a property of the stimulus, rather than a property of the background, as in all past CD testing. Previously, we and others found children succeed on the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) test at 3 years -- 12-24 months earlier than previously reported -- by making color a property of the background, instead of a property of the stimulus, as in standard DCCS testing. Neither the change to CD or DCCS affected the rule structure or reasoning requirements of the task. This double dissociation, with 3-year-olds performing better on CD when color and shape were integrated but better on DCCS when color and shape were separated, indicates that when superficial stimulus properties are modified 3-year-olds can do conditional reasoning and grasp a hierarchical rule structure - but they seem to need perceptual boot-strapping to do that. Children of 3 years evidently have difficulty mentally separating physical dimensions (e.g., color and shape) of the same object and difficulty mentally integrating physical dimensions not part of the same object. These results provide the strongest evidence to date against conceptual accounts of why children of 3 years fail conditional discrimination or card sorting.

Consciousness and control: The argument from developmental psychology

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 788-789
Author(s):  
Philip David Zelazo ◽  
Douglas Frye
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Dimensional Change ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Voluntary Control ◽  
Card Sort ◽  
Age Related ◽  
And Control ◽  
Dimensional Change Card Sort

Limitations of Dienes & Perner's (D&P's) theory are traced to the assumption that the higher-order thought (HOT) theory of consciousness is true. D&P claim that 18-month-old children are capable of explicitly representing factuality, from which it follows (on D&P's theory) that they are capable of explicitly representing content, attitude, and self. D&P then attempt to explain 3-year-olds' failures on tests of voluntary control such as the dimensional change card sort by suggesting that at this age children cannot represent content and attitude explicitly. We provide a better levels-of-consciousness account for age-related abulic dissociations between knowledge and action.

scholarly journals Improving Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance of Preschoolers With Developmental Language Disorder: Effects of Two Task Variations

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 628-634
Author(s):  
Leah L. Kapa
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Dimensional Change ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Card Sort ◽  
Disorder Effects ◽  
Effective Change ◽  
Dimensional Change Card Sort ◽  
Task Administration

Purpose This research note addresses whether task administration variations can improve Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) performance in preschoolers with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Participants included preschoolers with DLD who failed the standard DCCS, which is characterized by inability to switch from one card sorting rule to a new rule. After an approximately 2.5-month delay, participants were retested on the DCCS in one of three conditions: repeating standard administration, participants labeling relevant card dimensions, or briefly removing target cards before the switch. Results Children in both the labeling and target removal conditions scored significantly higher on the second administration relative to the first. However, comparing across conditions, participants in the target removal condition scored higher on the second DCCS compared to participants in the standard and labeling conditions, which did not differ from each other. Conclusions DCCS performance of preschoolers with DLD can be improved by changing task administration. The most effective change is increasing the salience of the switch to the new sorting rule, as opposed to directing children's attention via their own labeling behavior.

Multiple Processes Underlying Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance: A Developmental Electrophysiological Investigation

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 3267-3279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Waxer ◽  
J. Bruce Morton
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Dimensional Change ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Imperative Stimulus ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Card Sort ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Multiple Processes ◽  
Dimensional Change Card Sort

Cognitive flexibility follows a protracted developmental trajectory [Morton, J. B. Understanding genetic, neurophysiological, and experiential influences on the development of executive functioning: The need for developmental models. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 2010]. For example, performance and patterns of brain activity associated with the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) show continued age-related changes into early adolescence. According to many theoretical accounts, the DCCS places demands on a single underlying executive process. In the present study, we investigated the possibility that multiple processes unfold within the timeframe of a single DCCS trial through the use of ERPs. Children (n = 40), adolescents (n = 20), and adults (n = 20) performed a modified version of the DCCS with distinct instruction cue- and stimulus-related periods. On any particular trial, the sorting rule either changed (i.e., switch trials) or remained the same (i.e., repeat trials), and the imperative stimulus either embodied conflict (i.e., bivalent stimuli) or did not (i.e., univalent stimuli). Findings were consistent with the hypothesis that multiple distinct executive processes unfold within a single trial. First, for all age groups, rule switching and conflict processing made additive contributions to variability in RT. Second, ERPs time-locked to the instruction cue revealed a late frontal negativity whose amplitude was greater for switch trials relative to repeat trials and that was associated with the magnitude of the behavioral switch cost, whereas ERPs time-locked to the imperative stimulus revealed a fronto-central N2 whose amplitude was greater for bivalent than univalent stimuli and that was associated with the magnitude of the behavioral conflict cost. Finally, switch and conflict-related processes showed distinct developmental trajectories. Taken together, the findings suggest that multiple executive processes underlie DCCS performance and its development. Theoretical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Mental Rotation in American Children: Diminished Returns of Parental Education in Black Families

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 130-141
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Efficiency Score ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
White Children ◽  
Family Socioeconomic Status ◽  
White Families ◽  
American Children

Background: While parental education and family socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with an increase in children’s cognitive functioning, and less is known about racial variation in these effects. Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) suggest that, under racism and social stratification, family SES and particularly parental education show weaker effects on children’s tangible outcomes for marginalized, racialized, and minoritized families, particularly Blacks, compared to Whites. Aim: We conducted this study to compare the effect of parental education on children’s mental rotation abilities, as an important aspect of cognitive function, by race. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 11,135 9–10-year-old American children. Data came from baseline of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The independent variable was parental education. The dependent variable, mental rotation, was measured by the Little Man Task. Ethnicity, gender, age, marital status, and household income were the covariates. Results: Parental education was positively associated with mental rotation. However, parental education showed a weaker association with mental rotation in Black than in White families. This was documented by a significant interaction between race and parental education on children’s efficiency score. Conclusion: Parental education shows a weaker correlation with mental rotation of Black rather than White children, which is probably because of racism, social stratification, and discrimination. This finding is in line with the MDRs phenomenon and suggests that marginalization and racism may interfere with the influences of parental assets and resources and Black American children’s development.

scholarly journals Not Quite as Grown-Up as We Like to Think

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Diamond ◽  
Natasha Kirkham
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Dimensional Change ◽  
Dependent Measure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Card Sort ◽  
Sensitive Measure ◽  
Infancy And Early Childhood ◽  
Dimensional Change Card Sort

Greater continuity in cognition between children and adults may exist than is usually appreciated. It was thought that after 3 to 4 years of age, the problem in switching on the dimensional-change card-sort task disappears. We show here, however, that if speed is used as the dependent measure, the effect of the first dimension is evident even in adults. Adults, like preschoolers, show difficulty in switching from a block of sorting by color or shape to a block of sorting by the other dimension. Notably, performance throughout the session was affected by the first dimension by which stimuli were sorted. We hypothesize that perhaps adults never fully outgrow any of the cognitive and perceptual biases of infancy and early childhood. Other examples of such biases that appear to still be present in adults are discussed. Conversely, the assumption that the optimal dependent measure for adults is the most sensitive measure for children is questioned.

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