Judgments of relevance in preschoolers: a study of training and transfer of self-cueing strategies

Marion Leclercq^1* Wilfried T. Mombo² Jérôme Clerc³

• ¹Composante INSPE Academie de Lille HdF, Univ Lille, ULR 4072 – PSITEC : Psychologie : Interactions, Temps, Emotions, Cognition, France
• ²Univ Tours, EA 2114- PAVeA : Psychologie des Âges de la Vie et Adaptation, France
• ³Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, France

When facing a task, children must analyse it precisely to fully identify what its goal is. This is particularly difficult for young children, who mainly rely on environmental cues to get there.Research suggests that training children to look for the most relevant perceptual cues is promising. Furthermore, as transferring skills to a new task is difficult, the question of whether young children are able to transfer such training remains open. The aim of this study was to test the extent to which two strategies of goal self-cueing -labeling and pointing-can help 4-year-old children to identify the relevant cues to clearly identify the goal of the task. The effects of explicit strategy training were tested in a near transfer task. Ninety-nine typically developing 4-year-olds took part in the study. They were divided into three groups: two were trained collectively in one of the two strategies and the third group as a control group with no strategy training. All children performed a cued card sorting task four times: Pre-test, Collective training, Post-test, and Transfer with new cards.Results confirmed the beneficial effect of strategy training on goal identification, particularly after training (Post-test). In the transfer phase, all three groups performed equally well. This study contributes to our understanding of how young children seek information when they look for the most relevant cues for identifying the goal of a task, and the benefits they may derive in a transfer task. It seems that the use of visual cues and self-cueing strategies helps preschoolers to clearly identify the goal of a task. Results are discussed in the light of the self-regulated learning framework. Some possible classroom applications are suggested.• Positive effect of strategy training on the self-identification of the goal of the tasks is shown in 4year-old children. • Increased strategic and card-sorting performance occurs after training.• Benefits of strategy training are maintained in transfer phase with new cards.• Clarifying the goal of a task helps children to judge the relevance of information and to make consistent decisions.Judgments of relevance in preschoolers: a study of training and transfer of self-cueing strategies