Problem solving flexibility across early development

In this study, we compared the problem-solving abilities of 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old children and explored how their causal understanding of a novel task related to their ability to respond flexibly when task demands changed. Importantly, our task allowed us to change the task configuration mid-way through the study in such a way that the children’s initially successful and efficient solution still remained viable, but was no longer the most efficient method to solve the task. Furthermore, this task has previously been employed in tests of cognitive flexibility with nonhuman primates (chimpanzees and gorillas)