The Development of Planning in Young Children (Cognitive Development, Problem-Solving, Spatial Cognition).

Abstract

Little is known about young children's ability to plan ahead to solve problems. In the current research, the transition from nonplanful to planful problem solving approaches was investigated in five studies involving 262 children aged 3 to 5 1/2 years. The task used involved searching a number of locations arrayed in a large space. The primary dependent variable was the route the child took among the locations. Children could plan ahead to avoid backtracking and thereby take the shortest route, or they could could use a nonplanful approach termed sighting. Sighting involved choosing a location to search only on the basis of its visual salience. Sighting often conflicted with planning by leading the child to backtrack at some point along the route. Results indicated that 3-year-olds used only sighting approaches, and that those sighting approaches could be disrupted under certain task conditions. Planning appeared in 3 1/2-year-olds, and children from 3 1/2 to 5 years used both planning and sighting. Sighting remained constant though less susceptible to disruption, while the frequency of planning increased gradually across this age range. Importantly, in conflict situations, these children neither reverted to the simpler sighting approaches, nor did they overcome sighting. Their performance was jointly determined by the influence of both approaches. In addition, in a more complex task requiring the combination of two simple plans, these children showed decreased performance. Five- and -a-half-year-olds planned with even greater frequency. Further, their planning was not disrupted by conflicting sighting cues, and they were able to combine two simple plans into a more complex plan with no decrement in performance. These results demonstrated planning at an early age, and showed how planning is acquired in relation to a more primitive problem solving approach. The findings were discussed in terms of simplified conditions under which 3-year-olds might show planning, and the possible developmental precursors of this type of planning.