Children as young as 5 switch attention better than chimpanzees

In a task based on switching between two sets of rules, 5-year-olds score high, while 4-year-olds and chimpanzees lag behind.

By age 5, children are far better than chimpanzees at switching attention from one set of rules to another. The findings add to the evidence that unique cognitive changes occur in humans before they reach 5 years of age.

Like memory and self-control, switching between “mental sets” such as rules or instructions is a basic cognitive ability developed at a young age. This allows us to quickly adjust to changes in the environment, such as choosing a different way to get somewhere when our route is blocked by roadworks.

To compare attention-switching abilities between primates and humans of different ages, Eva Reindl of the University of St. Andrews in the UK and her colleagues developed a set of tasks using reward-hiding cups.

Children and chimpanzees were trained to identify which of four cups on two different sets of shelves contained the reward—stickers for children and bananas for chimpanzees. On the green shelves is a green cup of treats, and on the blue shelves is a pink cup.

When they had to switch from one set of shelves to another, the chimpanzees successfully selected the correct cup 52% ​​of the time. This compares with 3-year-olds, who had a 50% success rate, and 4-year-olds, who had the correct choice 59% of the time.

Among five-year-olds, the success rate was much higher, at 80 percent. “From the age of five, something definitely happens,” says Reindl.

The results complement those of previous studies, which suggest older preschoolers are better at focusing on and switching between appropriate stimuli.

The improvement in task performance with age in children is likely due to biological changes, such as the development of the frontal lobes of the brain, says Reindl.

But cultural development can also play a role. Just as adults call out phone numbers or directions to remember them, language may have helped older children switch between the two rules.

Most of the errors made by children and chimpanzees involved applying the rule for the wrong set of shelves, but for chimpanzees, 32% of the errors were accidental, compared with 23% for 4-year-old humans and children. 27 percent among 3-year-olds.

“Chimpanzees sometimes chose [cups] who had nothing to do with the case at all, suggesting they didn’t develop such strong attentional mindsets to begin with,” says Reindl.

While biases — like children being tested by members of their own species — make it difficult to compare humans to apes, the study’s overall findings are robust, says Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

“It’s hard to argue with the conclusion that 5-year-olds do better than younger ones and better than chimpanzees of all ages, including adults,” says de Waal.