https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:3299 The shifting shelf task: a new, non-verbal measure for attentional set shifting Reindl, E. E. Reindl 0000-0003-1594-1367 University of St Andrews / Durham University Seed, A. M. A. M. Seed 0000-0002-3867-3003 University of St Andrews Call, J. J. Call University of St Andrews Hermann, E. E. Hermann University of Portsmouth Felsche, E. E. Felsche University of St Andrews / Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology / Lugosi, Z. Z. Lugosi University of St Andrews / University of Stirling / King's College London Duncan, L. L. Duncan University of St Andrews / University of Aberdeen Völter, C. J. C. J. Völter 0000-0002-8368-7201 University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna / University of St Andrews Civelek, Z. Z. Civelek 0000-0001-8483-3752 University of St Andrews Royal Society of London text eng Attentional set shifting is a core ingredient of cognition, allowing for fast adaptation to changes in the environment. How this skill compares between humans and other primates is not well known. We examined performance of 3- to 5-year-old children and chimpanzees on a new attentional set shifting task. We presented participants with two shelves holding the same set of four boxes. To choose the correct box on each shelf, one has to switch attention depending on which shelf one is currently presented with. Experiment 1 (forty-six 3- to 5-year olds, predominantly European White) established content validity, showing that the majority of errors were specific switching mistakes indicating failure to shift attention. Experiment 2 (one hundred and seventy-eight 3- to 6-year olds, predominantly European White) showed that older children made fewer mistakes, but if mistakes were made, a larger proportion were switching mistakes rather than 'random' errors. Experiment 3 (52 chimpanzees) established suitability of the task for non-human great apes and showed that chimpanzees' performance was comparable to the performance of 3- and 4-year olds, but worse than 5-year olds. These results suggest that chimpanzees and young children share attentional set shifting capacities, but that there are unique changes in the human lineage from 5 years of age. Animals; Humans; Child, Preschool; Child; Adolescent; Pan troglodytes; Attention; Cognition; Reversal Learning http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/api/object/o:3299/download 10.1098/rspb.2022.1496 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:605 application/pdf Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences 290(1991) (2023) Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences 290 1991 331.52 kB 2023