Cognitive Development Lab, UCSD

MESA Project Resources

Many of the datasets and some of the tasks developed for the MESA (Modeling the Emergence of Shared Attention) project can be found here at our OSF site.

3DCCS Test

The Three Dimension-Change Card Sorting (3DCCS, see Deák & Wiseheart, 2015) tests young children’s ability to flexibly switch sorting choices when rules change. It is based on a simpler test, the DCCS (e.g., Zelazo, Frye, & Palfai, 1996), but it reveals more graded and nuanced patterns of flexibility and inflexibility in children’s sorting responses.

The 3DCCS uses three rules and is similar in difficulty to the FIM-An test (see below). Children must sort six cards into one of four boxes. Each card has a picture of an animal that differs in shape, color, and size. Children are told a rule (e.g., in the “color game” sort red, blue, and yellow items into different boxes). After sorting each card, children are told a second rule (e.g., the “shape game”), and after sorting the cards again using that rule, they are told a third rule (e.g., “size game”). Card sets are selected so that children must sort each card into a different box under each rule.

Researchers at non-profit educational or research institutions who would like the test resources (image files, instructions, and formatted response recording sheets) should send a request to gdeak[at]ucsd.edu. If used in any report or publication, please cite:

Deák, G.O., & Wiseheart, M. (2015). Cognitive flexibility in young children: A general or task- specific capacity? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 138, 31-53.

http://quote.ucsd.edu/cogdevlab/files/2015/07/Deak_Wiseheart_JECP_2015.pdf

FIM-Animates Test

The Three Dimension-Change Card Sorting (3DCCS, see Deák & Wiseheart, 2015) tests young children’s ability to flexibly switch sorting choices when rules change. It is based on a simpler test, the DCCS (e.g., Zelazo, Frye, & Palfai, 1996), but it reveals more graded and nuanced patterns of flexibility and inflexibility in children’s sorting responses.

The 3DCCS uses three rules and is similar in difficulty to the FIM-An test (see below). Children must sort six cards into one of four boxes. Each card has a picture of an animal that differs in shape, color, and size. Children are told a rule (e.g., in the “color game” sort red, blue, and yellow items into different boxes). After sorting each card, children are told a second rule (e.g., the “shape game”), and after sorting the cards again using that rule, they are told a third rule (e.g., “size game”). Card sets are selected so that children must sort each card into a different box under each rule.

Visuo-Motor Processing Speed

Developed with Melody Wiseheart (York University), this MatLab-based program uses touchscreen input to test young children’s perceptual-motor response speed. The test can be used with a laptop and removable touch-screen. Children must choose, on every trial, an identical colored geometric shape from an array, by touching the matching shape. Arrays vary in difficulty. Users can specify various parameters (e.g., inter-trial interval; number of trials) in a GUI before each use.

For stimulus images (.tif format), contact gdeak[at]ucsd.edu.

InfAttend/MESA

InfAttend/MESA is a software tool written in Visual Basic (by H. Kim and G. Deák). It has two modes: Habituation mode and Preferential Looking. These VisualBasic applications provide precise, easy control over both testing paradigms, which are commonly used in infant perception studies. This application offers a user-friendly tool for testing infants in a freely available VisBasic tool. InfAttend/MESA was supported by the National Science Foundation (SES-0527756 to Gedeon Deák). To use InfAttend/MESA, please contact Gedeon Deák at gdeak[at]ucsd.edu.

VisLearn/MESA

VisLearn/MESA is a software tool written in Presentation (http://www.neurobs.com/). It supports the creation, control, and delivery of contingency- or sequence-learning stimuli for infants, children, or adults. It is written to be usable and modifiable with minimal difficulty by other Presentation users. For an example of research using this test, see Ellis, Robledo and Deák (2013). VisLearn/MESA was supported by the National Science Foundation (SES-0527756 to Gedeon Deák and Jochen Triesch). To use VisLearn/MESA, please contact gdeak[at]ucsd.edu.