By 3 years, children can perform either task well on its own, but typically fail to switch from one to the other ( Zelazo et al., 1996). When studying children's cognitive flexibility, researchers typically use paradigms that involve switching between two simple tasks, such as matching stimuli by their color and matching stimuli by their shape ( Zelazo, 2006). We will first describe the development of cognitive flexibility during the early school years, and then discuss possible explanations for the role that set size might play in children's ability to switch flexibly between tasks. This paper explores what role set size plays in cognitive flexibility during the early school years. Understanding the influence of set size in cognitive flexibility development can also better inform early school education for children in key areas such as mathematics and literacy where cognitive flexibility plays a central role ( Bull and Scerif, 2001 St Clair-Thompson and Gathercole, 2006 Blair and Razza, 2007 Bull et al., 2008 Yeniad et al., 2013). In contrast, paradigms used with adults typically use a much larger set size ( Rogers and Monsell, 1995 Richter and Yeung, 2012). Cognitive flexibility paradigms used with young children typically use a small number of stimuli (e.g., the Dimensional Change Card Sort, DCCS, Zelazo, 2006 and Shape School, Espy, 1997). Set size is also methodologically important because one of the crucial differences between cognitive flexibility paradigms used with adults and those used with children is their set size ( Cragg and Chevalier, 2012).
Set size is of theoretical importance because it informs the debate regarding the roles of top-down cognitive control and bottom-up priming in the development of cognitive flexibility ( Cepeda et al., 2001). When a large pool of stimuli are used (a large set size), performance is better than when a small pool of stimuli are used (a small set size). Cognitive flexibility in adults and children is affected by the set size of the tasks involved-that is, the size of the pool of different stimuli that must be processed in the task ( Kray and Eppinger, 2006 Kray et al., 2012).
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For example, when switching between a Mac and a PC, different responses are often required to achieve the same goal, such as pressing a button in the top-left or top-right corner to close a browser window. People are capable of flexibly adapting their thoughts and behaviors according to novel or changing environmental demands or task goals. One of the hallmarks of human cognition is its flexibility. These findings also have applications in education, where they have the potential to inform teaching in key areas where cognitive flexibility is required, such as mathematics and literacy. Practically, they suggest that children's cognitive flexibility may have been underestimated relative to adults', as paradigms used with children typically have a smaller set size than those used with adults. These findings make important theoretical and practical contributions to the executive function literature: theoretically, they show that the basic features of a task exert a significant influence on children's ability to flexibly shift between tasks through bottom-up priming effects. They suggest that children are susceptible to bottom-up priming caused by stimulus repetition, and that this priming can impair their ability to switch between tasks. Our findings offered support for the Stimulus-Task Priming account, but not for the Rule Representation account. We tested two accounts for the relationship between set size and cognitive flexibility: the (bottom-up) Stimulus-Task Priming account and the (top-down) Rule Representation account.
Understanding how set size interacts with task-switching informs the debate regarding the relative contributions of bottom-up priming and top-down control processes in the development of cognitive flexibility. This paper also offers insights into the mechanism by which this effect comes about. This paper provides evidence that when tasks have a small set size, children's cognitive flexibility is impaired compared to when tasks have a large set size. Previous research has suggested that the number of different exemplars that must be processed within a task (the set size) can influence an individual's ability to switch flexibly between different tasks. One of the hallmarks of human cognition is cognitive flexibility, the ability to adapt thoughts and behaviors according to changing task demands.
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