Abstract
Cognitive flexibility, the ability to flexibly switch between tasks, is a core dimension of executive functions (EFs) allowing to control actions and to adapt flexibly to changing environments. It supports the management of multiple tasks, the development of novel, adaptive behavior and is associated with various life outcomes. Cognitive flexibility develops rapidly in preschool and continuously increases well into adolescence, mirroring the growth of neural networks involving the prefrontal cortex. Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in interventions designed to improve cognitive flexibility in children in order to support the many developmental outcomes associated with cognitive flexibility. This article provides a brief review of the development and plasticity of cognitive flexibility across early and middle childhood (i.e., from preschool to elementary school age). Focusing on interventions designed to improve cognitive flexibility in typically developing children, we report evidence for significant training and transfer effects while acknowledging that current findings on transfer are heterogeneous. Finally, we introduce metacognitive training as a promising new approach to promote cognitive flexibility and to support transfer of training.
Highlights
The ability to shift between different tasks or goals, is considered a key aspect of executive functions (EF) allowing individuals to regulate their thoughts and actions adaptively (e.g., Miyake et al, 2000; Jurado and Rosselli, 2007)
Four sessions of switching training resulted in significant improvements in an untrained switching task, inhibition and working memory (WM) in 7- to 12-year-old boys with ADHD (N = 20; Kray et al, 2012). These findings indicate that training cognitive flexibility may be a key factor for improving other dimensions of EF
Recent training studies provided accumulating evidence for the trainability of cognitive flexibility in early and middle childhood. We illustrated these training effects and findings on transfer based on studies applying the Dimensional Change Card Sort task (DCCS) and the task-switching paradigm
Summary
The ability to shift between different tasks or goals, is considered a key aspect of executive functions (EF) allowing individuals to regulate their thoughts and actions adaptively (e.g., Miyake et al, 2000; Jurado and Rosselli, 2007). Cognitive flexibility enables to think divergently, change perspective and adapt to a continuously changing environment. When it comes to the structure of EF, earlier models have either assumed that it is a unitary construct (e.g., Duncan et al, 1997) or a set of dissociable control components (e.g., Stuss and Alexander, 2000). The Miyake model, for instance, assumes that the core EF skills entail working memory (WM), inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. This structure is subject to developmental changes, with a shift from a single latent EF. We will first describe the development of cognitive flexibility
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