title: When seeing is knowing: the role of visual cues in the dissociation between children's rule knowledge and rule use.
abstract: The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task requires children to switch from sorting cards based on shape or color to sorting based on the other dimension. Typically, 3-year-olds perseverate, whereas 4-year-olds flexibly sort by different dimensions. Zelazo and colleagues (1996, Cognitive Development, 11, 37-63) asked children questions about the postswitch rules and found an apparent dissociation between rule knowledge and rule use, namely that 3-year-olds demonstrate accurate knowledge of the postswitch rules despite sorting cards incorrectly. Here, we show that children's success with these questions is grounded in their use of available visual cues; children who fail sorting use the target cards to correctly answer questions, and when the cards are unavailable they guess. This suggests that there might not be a dissociation between children's rule knowledge and rule use in the DCCS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. aaron-buss@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Aaron T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Buss
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Spencer
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D002666:Psychology, Child; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis