Children boost their cognitive performance with a novel offloading technique.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Children boost their cognitive performance with a novel offloading technique.
Authors: Armitage, Kristy L. (AUTHOR), Redshaw, Jonathan (AUTHOR)
Source: Child Development. Jan2022, Vol. 93 Issue 1, p25-38. 14p. 1 Color Photograph, 3 Graphs.
Subjects: Cognition in children, Problem solving, Maps, Mental rotation, Searching behavior in children, Children
Abstract: Ninety‐seven children aged 4–11 (49 males, 48 females, mostly White) were given the opportunity to improve their problem‐solving performance by devising and implementing a novel cognitive offloading strategy. Across two phases, they searched for hidden rewards using maps that were either aligned or misaligned with the search space. In the second phase, maps were presented on rotatable turntables, thus allowing children to manually align all maps and alleviate mental rotation demand. From age six onwards, children showed strong evidence of both mentally rotating misaligned maps in phase 1 and manually aligning them in phase 2. Older children used this form of cognitive offloading more frequently, which substantially improved performance and eliminated the individual differences observed in phase 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Child Development is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
Full text is not displayed to guests.
Description
Abstract:Ninety‐seven children aged 4–11 (49 males, 48 females, mostly White) were given the opportunity to improve their problem‐solving performance by devising and implementing a novel cognitive offloading strategy. Across two phases, they searched for hidden rewards using maps that were either aligned or misaligned with the search space. In the second phase, maps were presented on rotatable turntables, thus allowing children to manually align all maps and alleviate mental rotation demand. From age six onwards, children showed strong evidence of both mentally rotating misaligned maps in phase 1 and manually aligning them in phase 2. Older children used this form of cognitive offloading more frequently, which substantially improved performance and eliminated the individual differences observed in phase 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:00093920
DOI:10.1111/cdev.13664