The ability to divide spatial attention across non-contiguous locations develops in middle childhood

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Adults can effectively divide visual attention across non-contiguous spatial locations.
• The developmental trajectory of multifocal attention is not well understood.
• Maturation of neural areas supporting attention is crucial for this ability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the development of the ability to split visual attention in children.
• To determine the age at which multifocal spatial attention emerges.
• To examine if this ability is a hallmark of human endogenous attention.

Main Methods:

• Adaptation of Awh and Pashler's (2000) spatial attention task.
• Participants (6-year-olds, 8-year-olds, adults) were cued to attend to two non-contiguous locations.
• Performance was assessed on valid and invalid trials based on digit identification.

Main Results:

• Evidence for multifocal spatial attention was found in 8-year-olds and adults.
• Six-year-olds demonstrated a strategy consistent with a single focus of attention.
• Performance differences between valid and invalid trials indicated attention division capabilities.

Conclusions:

• The capacity to divide attention between non-contiguous locations develops during middle childhood.
• This developmental milestone is linked to the maturation of neural networks supporting attention.
• The findings contribute to understanding the emergence of endogenous attention capabilities.