Be there on time: spatial-temporal regularities guide young children’s attention in dynamic environments
Children's ability to benefit from spatiotemporal regularities to detect goal-relevant targets was tested in a dynamic, extended context. Young adults and children (from a low-deprivation area school in the UK; N=80; 5-6 years; 39 female; ethics approval did not permit individual-level race/eth...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2022
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| Summary: | Children's ability to benefit from spatiotemporal regularities to detect goal-relevant targets was
tested in a dynamic, extended context. Young adults and children (from a low-deprivation area
school in the UK; N=80; 5-6 years; 39 female; ethics approval did not permit individual-level
race/ethnicity surveying) completed a dynamic visual-search task. Targets and distractors
faded in and out of a display over seconds. Half of the targets appeared at predictable times
and locations. Search performance in children was poorer overall. Nevertheless, they benefitted
equivalently from spatiotemporal regularities, detecting more predictable than unpredictable
targets. Children's benefits from predictions correlated positively with their attention. The
study brings ecological validity to the study of attentional guidance in children, revealing
striking behavioural benefits of dynamic experience-based predictions. |
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