Changing the way children make their response appears to sometimes, but not always, boost their inhibitory control—though interpreting existing findings is hampered by inconsistent methods and results. This study investigated the effects of delaying, and changing, the means of responding. Ninety-six preschoolers (M_age 46 months) completed tasks assessing inhibitory control, counterfactual reasoning, strategic reasoning, and false belief understanding. Children responded either immediately or after a delay, and either by pointing with their finger, or with a hand-held arrow. Delaying boosted performance on all tasks except false belief understanding; arrow-pointing only improved strategic reasoning. It is suggested that delay helps children work out the correct response; it is unlikely to help on tasks where this requirement is absent.

中文翻译：

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我们可以通过改变他们的反应方式来提高学龄前儿童的抑制能力吗？

改变孩子做出反应的方式有时但并非总是会增强他们的抑制控制——尽管解释现有的发现会受到不一致的方法和结果的阻碍。这项研究调查了延迟和改变反应方式的影响。九十六名学龄前儿童（M_年龄46 个月）完成了评估抑制控制、反事实推理、战略推理和错误信念理解的任务。孩子们要么立即做出反应，要么在延迟后做出反应，要么用手指指点，要么用手持箭头。除错误信念理解外，延迟所有任务的性能提升；箭头只会改进战略推理。建议延迟帮助孩子做出正确的反应；对于没有此要求的任务，它不太可能有所帮助。