Developmental origins of cognitive offloading.

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Title: Developmental origins of cognitive offloading.
Authors: Armitage, Kristy L.1 kristy.armitage@uq.net.au, Bulley, Adam2,3,4, Redshaw, Jonathan1 j.redshaw@uq.edu.au
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 6/10/2020, Vol. 287 Issue 1928, p1-9. 9p.
Subjects: Mental rotation, Reaction time, Philosophy of mind, Social problems, Turntables, Cognitive development
Abstract: Many animals manipulate their environments in ways that appear to augment cognitive processing. Adult humans show remarkable flexibility in this domain, typically relying on internal cognitive processing when adequate but turning to external support in situations of high internal demand. We use calendars, calculators, navigational aids and other external means to compensate for our natural cognitive shortcomings and achieve otherwise unattainable feats of intelligence. As yet, however, the developmental origins of this fundamental capacity for cognitive offloading remain largely unknown. In two studies, children aged 4–11 years (n = 258) were given an opportunity to manually rotate a turntable to eliminate the internal demands of mental rotation––to solve the problem in the world rather than in their heads. In study 1, even the youngest children showed a linear relationship between mental rotation demand and likelihood of using the external strategy, paralleling the classic relationship between angle of mental rotation and reaction time. In study 2, children were introduced to a version of the task where manually rotating inverted stimuli was sometimes beneficial to performance and other times redundant. With increasing age, children were significantly more likely to manually rotate the turntable only when it would benefit them. These results show how humans gradually calibrate their cognitive offloading strategies throughout childhood and thereby uncover the developmental origins of this central facet of intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences is the property of Royal Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: Developmental origins of cognitive offloading.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Armitage%2C+Kristy+L%2E%22">Armitage, Kristy L.</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> kristy.armitage@uq.net.au</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Bulley%2C+Adam%22">Bulley, Adam</searchLink><relatesTo>2,3,4</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Redshaw%2C+Jonathan%22">Redshaw, Jonathan</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> j.redshaw@uq.edu.au</i>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Proceedings+of+the+Royal+Society+B%3A+Biological+Sciences%22">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</searchLink>. 6/10/2020, Vol. 287 Issue 1928, p1-9. 9p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Mental+rotation%22">Mental rotation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reaction+time%22">Reaction time</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Philosophy+of+mind%22">Philosophy of mind</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+problems%22">Social problems</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Turntables%22">Turntables</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cognitive+development%22">Cognitive development</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
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  Data: Many animals manipulate their environments in ways that appear to augment cognitive processing. Adult humans show remarkable flexibility in this domain, typically relying on internal cognitive processing when adequate but turning to external support in situations of high internal demand. We use calendars, calculators, navigational aids and other external means to compensate for our natural cognitive shortcomings and achieve otherwise unattainable feats of intelligence. As yet, however, the developmental origins of this fundamental capacity for cognitive offloading remain largely unknown. In two studies, children aged 4–11 years (n = 258) were given an opportunity to manually rotate a turntable to eliminate the internal demands of mental rotation––to solve the problem in the world rather than in their heads. In study 1, even the youngest children showed a linear relationship between mental rotation demand and likelihood of using the external strategy, paralleling the classic relationship between angle of mental rotation and reaction time. In study 2, children were introduced to a version of the task where manually rotating inverted stimuli was sometimes beneficial to performance and other times redundant. With increasing age, children were significantly more likely to manually rotate the turntable only when it would benefit them. These results show how humans gradually calibrate their cognitive offloading strategies throughout childhood and thereby uncover the developmental origins of this central facet of intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
– Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright
  Label:
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences is the property of Royal Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
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      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2927
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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      – SubjectFull: Mental rotation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reaction time
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Philosophy of mind
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      – SubjectFull: Social problems
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      – SubjectFull: Turntables
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      – SubjectFull: Cognitive development
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      – TitleFull: Developmental origins of cognitive offloading.
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              M: 06
              Text: 6/10/2020
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              Y: 2020
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