Structure and Implementation of Novel Task Rules: A Cross-Sectional Developmental Study.

ABSTRACT: Rule-based performance improves remarkably throughout childhood. The present study examined how children and adolescents structured tasks and implemented rules when novel task instructions were presented in a child-friendly version of a novel instruction-learning paradigm. Each miniblock started with the presentation of new stimulus-response mappings for a go task. Before this mapping could be implemented, subjects had to make responses in order to advance through screens during a preparatory (" next") phase. Children (4-11 years old) and late adolescents (17-19 years old) responded more slowly during the next phase when the next response was incompatible with the instructed stimulus-response mapping. This instruction-based interference effect was more pronounced in young children than in

SUBMITTER: Verbruggen F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6247441 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature