What cognitive processes influence how well we maintain information in visual short-term memory (VSTM)? We used a developmentally informed design to delve into the interplay of top-down spatial biases with the nature of the internal memory codes, motivated by documented changes for both factors over childhood. Seven-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and…

Exemplar-similarity models such as the exemplar-based random walk (EBRW) model (Nosofsky & Palmeri, 1997b) were designed to provide a formal account of multidimensional classification choice probabilities and response times (RTs). At the same time, a recurring theme has been to use exemplar models to account for old-new item recognition and to…

A study of developmental aspects of selective attention and task-related strategies of attention in 2nd and 6th graders. Age differences were found and interpreted as reflecting the development of flexible as well as selective attention strategies. (DP)

This study compared the central capacity and the modularity models for explaining language processing in kindergarten children. Using a microcomputer, 19 kindergarten children completed a visual letter-matching task that required a manual response. An auditory tone was emitted by the computer in a separate trial also requiring a press. For the…

Infants' visual fixations were monitored while they viewed predictable and unpredictable sequences of stimuli. Analyses of anticipatory fixations indicated that by two months of age, infants form expectations for the reappearance of visual stimuli positioned opposite to each other. By three months, infants rapidly form expectations for asymmetric…

Two experiments used Visual Expectations Procedure to investigate development of expectations in infants up to 12 months old. Reaction time improved and the percentage of anticipations increased between 6 and 9 months using an alternation pattern or a complex pivot pattern, and between 4 and 8 months when using a left-right alternation or a…

Children (ages 5, 7, and 9 years) and young adults completed two visual attention tasks that required them to make a forced choice identification response to a target shape presented in the center of a computer screen. In the first task (high correlation condition) each target was flanked with the same distracters on 80% of the trials (valid…