The relationship between cognitive abilities and social abilities in childhood: a research on flexibility in thinking and cooperation with peers

This research is the first part of a project on the relationship between cognitive and social abilities in childhood, with special attention to the analysis of the relationship between flexibility in thinking and cooperative versus competitive solutions of social conflicts with peers. Flexibility is defined as the ability to suppress a response in order to finding a new one. The hypothesis is that the more flexible children are more able to detach themselves from the conflict situation and more able to consider it in an integrated way - therefore they are more able to find a cooperative solution. We studied a sample of 152 seven-year-old children. In this research, the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Task was used for the evaluation of flexibility in thinking. To evaluate cooperative and competitive behavior, an interactive drawing task was used, where children were asked to draw together with tied pencils. Two children, of the same sex and of the same level (high or low) of flexibility, were put to work together in the interactive task. Results confirm the hypothesis, and indicate that the more flexible children are also more able to cooperate with their peers, to take turns and to verbalize about other topics not related to the task.