Color Me This: An Investigation of a Priming Manipulation in the DCCS in Pre-School Aged Children

The Dimensional Change Card Sorting (DCCS) task is commonly used to investigate children’s executive function abilities. In this task, participants are first asked to sort cards by one dimension (e.g., shape) and then switch to sorting by a different dimension (e.g., color). Three-year-old children can sort the cards by the first dimension, however cannot successfully switch to the new dimension. The current project aimed at reducing perseveration errors using a priming manipulation between phases of the task. Results indicated that engaging in a coloring activity between phases for as little as two minutes was enough to help children successfully switch to sorting by the dimension of color; however contrary to previous literature, a two minute break alone with no priming activity was also enough to eliminate perseverations