The Development of Cognitive Flexibility and Language Abilities

Cross-classification, the ability to categorize multifaceted entities in many ways, is a remarkable cognitive milestone for children. Past work has focused primarily on documenting the timeline for when children reach cross-classification competence. However, it is not well understood what cognitive factors underpin children’s improvements. The current study aimed to examine the contributions of age, theory of mind, and rule switching to children’s cross-classification development. We tested 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 75) using a cross-classification task, the Theory of Mind Task Battery, and the Three-Dimensional Change Card Sort test. The results revealed that age and theory of mind predict children’s cross-classification over and above the effects of rule switching. The results also revealed that advanced-level theory of mind reasoning is a particularly strong predictor of cross-classification development. These findings increase understanding of cross-classification within children’s broader cognitive development.

As integral to the EFL learners' achievement and intellectual development, good language teachers need to be familiar with the influential factors hindering or promoting their success. Positive psychology paying attention to positive traits highlights the factors that boost performance. In this line, by taking boosters of being a successful teacher, the aim of the current study is to consider the interplay between Chinese EFL instructors' professional success, workplace buoyancy, and cognitive flexibility. Then, it is considered whether EFL teachers' buoyancy and cognitive flexibility can predict success. Accordingly, 328 Chinese EFL teachers were conveniently selected to participate in this study. To analyze the collected data, multiple regression analysis and Spearman Rho correlation index as well as ANOVA were employed. The findings are an indication of a direct and significant correlation and coaction among EFL teachers’ cognitive flexibility, workplace buoyancy, and professional success. Additionally, the results indicate that the cognitive flexibility of EFL teachers can be one of the significant predictors of success in their profession. Our findings imply that teachers need to enhance their positive personality traits such as cognitive flexibility and buoyancy to be successful in their profession.

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to think of something in more than one way, has been studied in preschoolers from two different approaches. Within executive function research, most studies operationalize cognitive flexibility using sequential tasks in which children must think of a specific stimulus first in one way and then in another way (switching cognitive flexibility). In contrast, Piagetian multiplicative classification tasks also require cognitive flexibility by asking children to consider multiple dimensions of a single stimulus at the same time. Piagetian tasks are typically inductive and require abstraction skills. Although research with Piagetian tasks suggests that children are unable to consider multiple dimensions simultaneously until they reach the concrete operational stage, there is some evidence that preschoolers can coordinate two dimensions simultaneously in deductive tasks. In this study, we examined a deductive version of a matrix completion task in which preschoolers (N = 102) were asked to consider two dimensions of a given stimulus simultaneously. We show that 4- and 5-year-olds can succeed on this task and compare children’s performance on the matrix completion task with their performance on a widely used switching cognitive flexibility task, the Dimensional Change Card Sort. We discuss the implications of relating the two aspects of cognitive flexibility development.

Impaired cognitive flexibility has been suggested as a risk factor for the development of anorexia nervosa (AN). The current study aimed to 1) investigate cognitive flexibility in people at various levels of risk of AN; and 2) compare people with a history of AN to people at different levels of risk of AN in cognitive flexibility. The sample comprised of 262 community participants (79% female) and 36 participants with a lifetime diagnosis of AN (97.2% female) aged between 18 and 64 years old. Participants completed self-report (the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale short-form version, the Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire, the Neuroticism Scale, and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory) and neurocognitive (the Trail Making Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) assessments online to evaluate eating disorder symptoms, depression, neuroticism, and cognitive flexibility. Using a cluster analysis, participants were allocated into low-, medium-, and high-risk of AN groups (n = 88, 128, 46, and 36 respectively). Although high-risk participants self-reported significantly poorer cognitive flexibility than the other risk groups, performance on the neurocognitive tasks was similar across groups. Further, participants with lifetime AN reported significantly poorer cognitive flexibility than the low-risk group. People at high-risk of AN may perceive themselves to have poorer cognitive flexibility compared to those at a lower risk of AN. These results have implications for early identification of people at high-risk of AN.

Students may differ on their standards of performance, reasons for attending school, beliefs about their academic and creative abilities, and the importance they place on school and creativity. The current study employed Latent Profile Analyses to identify sub-populations of university students based on the following seven indicators: standards of perfectionsim and excellencism, academic autonomous motivation, controlled motivation and amotivation, as well as academic and creative self-concepts. From a sample of n = 184 university students, five profiles were identified. The profiles could be described as Perfectionists with controlled motivation, Excellentists with autonomous motivation, Intermediate strivers with autonomous motivation, Intermediate strivers with controlled motivation, and Low strivers. The profiles were regressed onto various academic and creative outcomes. The results of three profiles in particular offered informative comparisons. In particular, the Perfectionists and the Excellentists profiles had similar achievement goals orientations (i.e., high on performance and mastery) but different motivational profiles and different divergent thinking abilities. The Excellentists profiles was higher than all the other profiles on divergent thinking except the Low strivers. The Low strivers profile was low on all achievement goal orientations but high on divergent thinking abilities. We discuss the implications of finding creative profiles within the academic environment and situate our findings within the achievement goals literature.