Evidence so far, however, suggests that this does explain age differences. Alternately, perhaps children perseverate when they cannot inhibit a previous object choice. This is consistent with theories that preschoolers have poor cognitive inhibition. I have completed several tests of this hypothesis, and found little effect of variables that should facilitate inhibition. We have new evidence that certain logical and metacognitive factors impact flexibility.
Uncertainty is adaptive when problems change across trials.
Perseverative children might fail to detect the indeterminacy inherent in a task that changes from trial to trial. They therefore would become overconfident in their initial inferences. We are now planning tests in which we will socially emphasize the indeterminacy of the task, to see whether this enhances flexibility. We are also testing stability of individual differences. Sorting objects by Shape and Function.