Heim Sabine, Benasich April A, Wirth Nadine, Keil Andreas
Infancy Studies Laboratory, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 197 University Avenue, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA,
Psychol Res. 2015 Jan;79(1):19-27. doi: 10.1007/s00426-013-0530-8. Epub 2013 Dec 15.
This cross-sectional study is the first to examine the developmental trajectory of temporal attention control from childhood to adolescence. We used a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, calling for the identification of two targets (T1 and T2) embedded in a distractor stream. In adults, manipulating the lag time within the target doublet typically leads to pronounced impairment in report for T2, when it follows T1 after approximately 200 ms, with one intervening distractor (lag 2); this is referred to as the attentional blink (AB). Participants, however, tend to identify T2 more often when the targets have occurred in a row ("lag-1 sparing"), or are separated by larger lag times, resulting in a hook-shaped accuracy profile. Here, we investigated the extent to which this AB profile undergoes systematic developmental changes in 204 students aged between 6 and 16 years (grades 1-10). T1-T2 lags varied from zero up to seven intervening distractors. Behavioral accuracy in younger children (grades 1-2) was found to follow a linear path, having its minimum at the earliest lag. Lag-1 sparing, accompanied by a relative accuracy loss in the AB interval, first appeared in grade 3, and became more robust in grade 4. From grades 5-6, the hook-shaped profile remained stable, with steady increases in overall performance up through the highest grades. This suggests that younger children's performance is limited by processing speed, while from preadolescence onwards, children are increasingly able to identify rapid target sequences at the cost of an interference sensitive, higher control system.
这项横断面研究首次考察了从童年到青少年时期时间注意力控制的发展轨迹。我们使用了快速序列视觉呈现范式，要求识别嵌入在干扰流中的两个目标（T1和T2）。在成年人中，当目标双峰内的延迟时间被操纵时，通常会导致对T2报告的明显损害，即当T2在大约200毫秒后跟随T1出现，中间有一个干扰物（延迟2）时；这被称为注意瞬脱（AB）。然而，当目标连续出现（“延迟1节省”）或被更大的延迟时间隔开时，参与者往往更频繁地识别T2，从而产生一种钩形的准确率曲线。在此，我们调查了204名6至16岁（1至10年级）学生中这种AB曲线在多大程度上经历了系统性的发展变化。T1 - T2的延迟从零到七个中间干扰物不等。发现年幼儿童（1至2年级）的行为准确率遵循线性路径，在最早的延迟时达到最低。延迟1节省伴随着AB间隔内相对准确率的损失，首次出现在3年级，并在4年级变得更加明显。从5至6年级开始，钩形曲线保持稳定，总体表现持续稳步提高直至最高年级。这表明年幼儿童的表现受处理速度限制，而从青春期前开始，儿童越来越能够以干扰敏感的更高控制系统为代价识别快速目标序列。
