Stumped! Learning to think outside the box in 3-7 year old children
Abstract
Many theories conceptualize thinking as search through a space of hypotheses. But what if your initial space is wrong? What cognitive skills support abandoning an ineffective hypothesis space and re-construing a problem with the correct hypothesis space? We examined the development of such abilities in n=172 children ages 3-7 years using Stumper riddles, which challenge respondents to explain seemingly impossible situations. We found evidence that children both learned the relevant hypothesis space for different riddle categories and generalized the cognitive strategy across riddle categories. Although older children showed greater overall accuracy, these effects of learning and meta-learning were found even for the youngest 3-5-year-olds. These results suggest a promising method for probing both flexible hypothesis search and meta-cognitive skills. We discuss ongoing plans to characterize individual differences as a way to uncover the underlying mechanisms of creative problem-solving.