Some current issues in children's selective attention

A large part of the history of learning theory of the last 25 years consists of devising ways to deal with stimulus selectivity. Earlier theories that assumed contiguity of stimulus and response to be a sufficient condition for formation of an association were found wanting. This paper has described some of the ways theorists have attacked the problem. These theoretical solutions were of two general types--two-stage theories with stimulus selection preceding association and theories that altered associative processing. Both types of theories successfully handled selective phenomena, and there is no clear basis at present for preferring one or the other. A question generally neglected by early attention theorists concerns the nature of a stimulus. How is the stimulus complex available to a subject divided into cues or elements that can be selectively responded to? Related questions are whether the experimenter's perception of stimulus elements correspond to the subject's view, and whether elements are perceived the same by all subjects. The answer to the last two questions appears to be in the negative. Recent research relative to these questions with children, adults, and nonhuman organisms is reviewed.