Selective sustained attention (SSA) is crucial for higher order cognition. Factors promoting SSA are described as exogenous or endogenous. However, there is little research specifying how these factors interact during development, due largely to the paucity of developmentally appropriate paradigms. We report findings from a novel paradigm designed…

Executive functioning skills develop rapidly during early childhood. Recent research has focused on specifying this development, particularly predictors of executive functioning skills. Here we focus on sustained attention as a predictor of inhibitory control, one key executive functioning component. Although sustained attention and inhibitory…

Little is known about how components of executive function (EF) jointly and uniquely predict different aspects of academic achievement and how this may vary across cultural contexts. In the current study, 119 Chinese and 139 American preschoolers were tested on a battery of EF tasks (i.e., inhibition, working memory, and attentional control) as…

Within the time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model, we tested a new conception of the relationships between processing and storage in which the core mechanisms of working memory (WM) are time constrained. However, our previous studies were restricted to adults. The current study aimed at demonstrating that these mechanisms are present and…

Nursery school and second grade subjects were trained on an optional shift task and results were compared with predictions derived from selective attention theory. Findings indicate that the one-look assumption does not hold and that a multiple-look theory, in which the breadth of attention varies with task demands, seems tenable. (GO)

Two experiments investigated the role of distractor characteristics and type of object-directed attention on 7- and 10-month-old infants' distraction latencies during object exploration. Found that infants took longer to turn toward distractors during focused object-directed attention than when engaged in more casual attention. They exhibited…

This study examined how well subjects of different ages were able to ignore the presence of irrelevant stimulus information. The speed of classification of 6-, 9- and 12-year-olds and adults was measured. Significant effects of age, sex, number of irrelevant dimensions, and relevant dimension on speed of classification were obtained. (GO)

Measured covert shifts of visual attention of observers aged 6, 8, and 20 years in a speeded classification task. There were differences between children's and adults' attention orientation, target processing, and use of predictability in cues. (SAK)

The component selection procedure developed by Hale and Morgan was used to assess children's use of selective attention at six levels of learning ranging from undertraining to overtraining. This function was examined at each of ages 4, 8, and 12. (SBT)

Examined ways in which irrelevant variations within a stimulus set interfered with performances of second and fifth graders and adults in a selective attention task. Stimuli were constructed from spatially integrated dimensions in experiment 1 and spatially separated dimensions in experiment 2. Developmental differences in perceived structure were…

Two experiments examined age differences in children's dual-task performance. Findings indicated that when capacity for single-task performance was controlled, age differences between second and fifth graders did not exist in performance of dual-tasks of equal priority. When tasks had different priorities, only fifth graders could differentially…

Assessed development of auditory selective attention using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures. Subjects heard tones or consonant-vowel sequences to detect deviant targets. Found that Nd difference (ERP difference between unattended and attended standard) showed effect of selective attention. For both tones and…

Results suggest that infants' errors in searching for a visible object reflect lapses of attention rather than systematic misunderstandings of objects or space and so are not incompatible with an information-processing account of early search. (Author/RH)