Children's search behaviour in large-scale space: developmental components of exploration

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Human Factors

Background:

• Visual-search tasks are proposed as models for foraging behavior.
• Previous research indicated fewer revisits in large-scale egocentric search than predicted by visual-search literature.
• This discrepancy may stem from increased effort in large-scale egocentric search.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of motor effort on egocentric search behavior.
• To examine how manipulating task difficulty influences search efficiency.
• To understand the role of cognitive factors in large-scale spatial exploration.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel automated paradigm to assess egocentric search.
• Manipulated motor difficulty by having children search with dominant versus non-dominant hands.
• Recorded search behavior, including revisits to previously searched locations.

Main Results:

• Children made significantly more revisits when using their non-dominant hand compared to their dominant hand.
• Increased motor effort (non-dominant hand use) impaired efficient search guidance.
• Faster task completion correlated with greater visuo-spatial short-term memory span.
• Search latency was not related to general fluid intelligence.

Conclusions:

• Motor effort significantly influences the efficiency of egocentric search behavior.
• Spatial working memory plays a critical role in developing effective large-scale spatial exploration strategies.
• Effortful motor responses can hinder the ability to guide search behavior efficiently.