Tabibi Z, Pfeffer K
Department of Psychology, University of Lincoln, UK.
Child Care Health Dev. 2003 Jul;29(4):237-44. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2214.2003.00336.x.
Safe pedestrian behaviour relies on cognitive skills, including the ability to focus attention on the traffic environment and ignore irrelevant stimuli. An important pedestrian skill that young children find difficult is the ability to find a safe place to cross the road. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between attention and children's ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites.
Participants were 95 children (aged 6.5 years, 8.6 years and 10.4 years) and 33 adults. Ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites was assessed using computer presentations of five safe and five dangerous sites. Attention was assessed using the Stroop test for resistance to interference. Correlations were calculated between Stroop test measures and pedestrian task measures (accuracy and speed of identifying safe and dangerous road-crossing sites) for each age group separately.
The ability to identify safe and dangerous road-crossing sites and the ability to resist interference increased with age. Significant correlations were observed between identification of safe and dangerous road-crossing sites and performance on the Stroop test for children but not for adults.
The results indicated that attention is required for identifying road-crossing sites quickly and accurately, especially for younger children. Road safety training programmes for children may need to take into account the development of children's attention.
安全的行人行为依赖于认知技能，包括将注意力集中在交通环境并忽略无关刺激的能力。幼儿觉得困难的一项重要行人技能是找到安全的过马路地点的能力。本研究的目的是考察注意力与儿童识别安全和危险过马路地点能力之间的关系。
参与者包括95名儿童（年龄分别为6.5岁、8.6岁和10.4岁）和33名成年人。使用五个安全地点和五个危险地点的计算机演示来评估识别安全和危险过马路地点的能力。使用斯特鲁普干扰抑制测试来评估注意力。分别计算每个年龄组的斯特鲁普测试指标与行人任务指标（识别安全和危险过马路地点的准确性和速度）之间的相关性。
识别安全和危险过马路地点的能力以及抗干扰能力随年龄增长而提高。在儿童中，识别安全和危险过马路地点与斯特鲁普测试表现之间存在显著相关性，但在成年人中不存在。
结果表明，快速准确地识别过马路地点需要注意力，尤其是对年幼儿童而言。针对儿童的道路安全培训计划可能需要考虑儿童注意力的发展。
