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Updated: May 21, 2026
09:47
A Method to Quantify Visual Information Processing in Children Using Eye Tracking
Published on: July 9, 2016
Development of visual working memory precision in childhood.
Stephanie Burnett Heyes1, Nahid Zokaei, Irene van der Staaij
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. burstephanie@gmail.com
Developmental Science
|June 20, 2012
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Human Perception
Background:
- Visual working memory (VWM) capacity is traditionally measured by the number of items stored.
- Previous research indicated VWM capacity stabilizes in childhood.
- Recent theories propose precision, not just capacity, is key to VWM development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the development of visual working memory (VWM) precision in children.
- To examine how VWM precision changes with age in relation to item quantity.
- To identify mechanisms underlying improvements in VWM performance.
Main Methods:
- Ninety boys aged 7–13 years completed one-item and three-item VWM tasks.
- Participants reproduced coloured bar orientations from memory using a rotating dial.
- Probabilistic modeling analyzed response distributions to assess storage precision.
Main Results:
- Linear age-related improvements in VWM recall precision were observed for both one- and three-item tasks.
- Even young children stored significant information in the three-item VWM task.
- Improved precision correlated with reduced variability in feature representations, not random noise or misbinding.
Conclusions:
- VWM precision, or resolution, develops throughout childhood and early adolescence.
- Improvements in VWM are driven by more precise internal representations, not just capacity.
- This suggests protracted development in how visual information is encoded and maintained.
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