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Published on: November 14, 2018
Development of dynamic attention: Time-based visual selection for objects in motion between 6-12 years of age
Zorana Zupan1, Elisabeth L Blagrove1, Derrick G Watson1
1Department of Psychology, University of Warwick.
Insights
Children develop the ability to ignore moving distractors in two stages. This time-based visual selection, crucial for ignoring old items, emerges by 8 years and fully develops by 12 years.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Children's ability to ignore irrelevant visual information develops over time.
- Preview search paradigms assess the capacity to inhibit previously seen stimuli.
- Stationary stimuli are easier to ignore than moving stimuli during visual search.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of time-based visual selection in ignoring moving distractors.
- To determine the age at which children can effectively inhibit previewed moving objects.
- To explore the relationship between executive functions, specifically inhibition, and preview search efficiency.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted with 192 children aged 6, 8, and 12, and adult controls.
- A preview search task was used to assess the ability to ignore temporally old, moving distractors.
- Individual differences in executive functions, including inhibition, were measured.
Main Results:
- Six-year-olds could not ignore previewed moving distractors, while 8-year-olds showed this ability.
- Full development of ignoring moving distractors, including sustained inhibition, was observed from age 12.
- Inhibition executive functions correlated with preview search efficiency in 6-year-olds and adults.
Conclusions:
- The ability to ignore moving distractors develops in two distinct stages, later than for stationary distractors.
- Inhibitory mechanisms and individual differences play a significant role in the development of time-based visual selection.
- This research highlights a protracted developmental course for inhibiting dynamic visual information.
Abstract:
By approximately 6 years of age, children can use time-based visual selection to ignore stationary stimuli, already in the visual field and prioritize the selection of newly arriving stimuli. This ability can be studied using preview search, a version of the visual search paradigm with an added temporal component, in which one set of distractors is presented (previewed) before a second set that contains the target item. Preview search is more efficient than if all items are presented simultaneously, suggesting that temporally "old" objects can be ignored (the preview benefit). In two experiments, we examined the developmental trajectory for time-based visual selection in a sample of 192 6-, 8-, and 12-year-old children (49% female, predominantly White), with adults as controls (75% female, predominantly White), in the United Kingdom. The results showed an absence of the ability to ignore previewed moving distractors in 6-year-olds and confirmed its presence from 8 years of age. However, full development of this ability, which includes maintaining inhibition of previewed items over extended periods, was only present from the age of 12. Individual differences in executive functions, namely inhibition, were associated with preview search efficiency in 6-year-olds and adults. Overall, the results suggest a developmental trajectory in the ability to ignore moving old objects that occurs in two stages and develops later than the ability to ignore previewed stationary objects. The results are discussed in terms of underlying inhibitory mechanisms, in addition to individual differences in the expression of this ability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
