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Sustained attention and unintentional injury among preschool-aged children
L Bennett Murphy1, E Caroline, C L Rose
1Department of Psychology, One Otterbein College, Westerville, OH 43081, USA. LBennett-Murphy@otterbein.edu
Insights
Preschool children's vigilance, specifically perceptual sensitivity and response bias, predicts unintentional injuries. Lower sensitivity and responsiveness correlate with higher injury rates in young children.
Area of Science:
- Child development
- Developmental psychology
- Injury prevention
Background:
- Vigilance is crucial for child safety and injury prevention.
- Understanding vigilance in preschool-aged children is essential for identifying risk factors.
- Previous research has not fully explored the link between vigilance and unintentional injuries in this age group.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine vigilance performance in preschool-aged children.
- To investigate the relationship between vigilance indicators and unintentional injury occurrences.
- To determine if vigilance measures can predict injury risk in young children.
Main Methods:
- 28 children aged 4-5 years completed a computerized vigilance task.
- Vigilance measures included correct detections, false alarms, reaction time, and signal detection indices (d' and c).
- Primary caregivers maintained daily injury phone journals for 4 weeks.
Main Results:
- Vigilance performance was influenced by child's age and signal probability.
- Older children demonstrated enhanced vigilance, performing similarly to adults.
- Lower perceptual sensitivity and response bias predicted higher unintentional injury rates.
Conclusions:
- Vigilance, particularly perceptual sensitivity and response bias, is a significant predictor of unintentional injuries in preschool children.
- Age and signal probability modulate vigilance performance in this age group.
- Targeted interventions to improve vigilance may reduce injury risk in young children.
Abstract:
This study examined vigilance in preschool-aged children and explored the relationship between vigilance and unintentional injury. There were 28 participating children, aged 4 and 5 years, who completed a computerized vigilance task for two 5-min sessions. The task generated measures of correct detections, false alarms, reaction time, and the signal detection indices of d' and c. Primary caregivers completed daily injury phone journals for a 4-week period. Results indicated that age and signal probability affected vigilance. Older children made more correct detections, had greater perceptual sensitivity, and performed in patterns similar to adults. Performance was enhanced in the high signal probability condition. In addition, vigilance indicators of perceptual sensitivity and response bias were predictive of injury, while age was not. Specifically, children with lower perceptual sensitivity scores, and who were less responsive to the vigilance task, experienced more unintentional injuries over the course of the study.