文章基本信息

标题：Developmental trajectory of rule management system in children
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作者：Taeko Harada ; Motoharu Tsuruno ; Tetsuya Shirokawa 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2018
卷号：8
期号：1
页码：12798
DOI：10.1038/s41598-018-31235-6
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Abstract The ability to apply rules for environmental adaptation is crucial for human life. This capacity may require high-order cognitive control, such as when managing personal behavior by selecting among context-dependent internal rules. This process is poorly understood in children, especially in terms of the age at which multiple-rules processing becomes possible. We created a child-appropriate “rule management paradigm” to elucidate developmental changes in rule processing, and used it to investigate the trajectory of the rule management system in 322 children aged 4 to 6 years, with comparison to 57 adults. We found age-specific capacities in multiple-rules processing, with the majority of 4-year-olds failing at concurrent management of multiple-rules processing, a capacity that became well developed by age 6. Task performance in multiple-rules processing improved steeply with age and approached the adult level by late age 6. By contrast, single-rule processing on single-feature stimuli approached the adult level by age 5. Our main findings suggest that the critical period for the development of the multiple-rules processing system occurs before age 7, and is associated with the developmental period of the rule management system and other cognitive resources.