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Visual exogenous and endogenous attention and visual memory in preschool children who stutter
Stacy A Wagovich1, Julie D Anderson2, Margaret S Hill3
1Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Missouri, United States.
Insights
Preschool children who stutter (CWS) show weaker visual attention and short-term memory (STM) compared to peers. This study highlights attention differences in CWS during a visual tracking task.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Speech and Language Pathology
Background:
- Attention develops progressively through childhood, with exogenous attention emerging in infancy and endogenous attention later in the preschool years.
- Understanding attention in early childhood is crucial for identifying developmental differences and potential learning challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate differences in exogenous and endogenous attention between preschool children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS).
- To compare visual short-term memory (STM) abilities between CWS and CWNS within a sustained selective attention task.
Main Methods:
- 42 CWS and 42 matched CWNS (ages 3-5) completed a visual sustained selective attention task (Track-It Task).
- The task involved tracking stimuli, engaging both exogenous and endogenous attention processes.
- Visual memory was assessed by asking children to recall tracked items after each trial.
Main Results:
- CWS demonstrated significantly lower accuracy in visual tracking and recall compared to CWNS.
- Both groups performed better on attention tasks with more salient stimuli (engaging both attention types) versus less salient stimuli (primarily endogenous attention).
Conclusions:
- Preschool-age CWS, as a group, exhibit deficits in visual sustained selective attention and visual STM relative to their non-stuttering peers.
- These findings suggest potential underlying cognitive differences in attention and memory for children who stutter.
Purpose:
Attention develops gradually from infancy to the preschool years and beyond. Exogenous attention, consisting of automatic responses to salient stimuli, develops in infancy, whereas endogenous attention, or voluntary attention, begins to develop later, in the preschool years. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) exogenous and endogenous attention in young children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) through two conditions of a visual sustained selective attention task, and (b) visual short-term memory (STM) between groups within the context of this task.
Method:
42 CWS and 42 CWNS, ages 3;0-5;5 (years;months), were pair-matched in age, gender (31 males, 11 females per group), and socioeconomic status. Children completed a visual tracking task (Track-It Task; Fisher et al., 2013) requiring sustained selective attention and engaging exogenous and endogenous processes. Following each item, children were asked to recall the item they had tracked, as a memory check.
Results:
The CWS group demonstrated significantly less accuracy in overall tracking and visual memory for the tracked stimuli, compared to the CWNS group. Across groups, the children performed better in sustained selective attention when the target stimuli were more salient (the condition tapping both exogenous and endogenous attention) than when stimuli were less so (the condition tapping primarily endogenous processes).
Conclusions:
Relative to peers, preschool-age CWS, as a group, display weaknesses in visual sustained selective attention and visual STM.
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