British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17, 363-380

The generation of random sequences is known to be a complex, demanding, and effortful task for adults. This paper explores random generation performance among children in three experiments. Experiment 1 illustrated 8-10 year-olds sensitivity to response speed requirements. Experiment 2 showed that 8 to 11 year olds were sensitive to the number of response alternatives, while there was equivalence in output quality over two types of instructional formats. Experiment 3 revealed competencies in performance among 5- to 7- year-olds and showed that response repetitions are partly amenable to instructional emphasis. Across comparable studies, analysis confirmed a multi-dimensional structure to response sets. Generally, data show the potential utility of random generation as a developmental task with substantial and multi-faceted attentional requirements.