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Inhibition of return in children and adolescents
Amy C MacPherson1, Raymond M Klein, Chris Moore
1Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4J1, Canada.
Insights
Inhibition of return (IOR) develops with age. Young children show IOR only with double cues, while older children exhibit IOR in both single and double cue procedures, indicating maturational effects on attention.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Visual Attention
Background:
- Inhibition of return (IOR) is a phenomenon where attention is slowed to return to a previously cued location.
- IOR is observed in adults and infants, but its developmental trajectory is not fully understood.
- The efficiency of disengaging attention may influence IOR's time course.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental changes in the time course of Inhibition of Return (IOR).
- To compare IOR performance between young children and older children/adolescents.
- To examine the effect of single vs. double cue procedures on IOR development.
Main Methods:
- A within-subjects localization task was employed, varying the cue-target interval.
- Participants included young children (5-10 years) and older children/adolescents (11-17 years).
- Single and double cue procedures were used to assess attention disengagement efficiency.
Main Results:
- Young children (5-10 years) did not exhibit IOR without a double cue procedure.
- Older children and adolescents (11-17 years) showed IOR in both single and double cue conditions.
- The older group displayed a typical IOR crossover pattern (early facilitation, later inhibition) with single cues.
Conclusions:
- The development of Inhibition of Return is age-dependent, with more mature attentional control in older individuals.
- Efficient attention disengagement, facilitated by double cues, is crucial for observing IOR in younger children.
- These findings highlight the maturation of attentional mechanisms throughout childhood and adolescence.
Abstract:
Inhibition of return (IOR), slowed responding to targets at a cued location after attention is removed from this location, has been shown to occur both in adults and in infants. To explore suggestion that the timecourse of IOR depends on factors that might affect the efficiency with which attention is removed from the cued location, we compared the performance of young children (5-10-year-olds, N=49, M=8 years, 4 months) to older children and adolescents (11-17-year-olds, N=61, M=14 years) in single and double cue procedures. Cue-target interval was varied to measure the timecourse of IOR in this within-subjects localization task. Whereas no IOR was found in the young group unless a double cue procedure was used, in the older group, we found IOR at all intervals with the double cue procedure and the typical crossover pattern, with early facilitation followed by inhibition in the single cue procedure.