Kuhn Gustav, Teszka Robert
Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2018 Mar;71(3):688-694. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1277770. Epub 2018 Jan 1.
Previous research has revealed marked improvements in cognitive control between the age of 10 years and adulthood. The aim of the current study was to explore differences in attentional control between adults and children within a natural context, namely whilst they were watching a magic trick. We measured participants' eye movements whilst they watched a misdirection trick in which attentional misdirection was used to prevent observers from noticing a salient visual event. Half of our participants failed to detect this event even though it took place in full view. Children below the age of 10 were significantly less likely to notice the event than the adults and were also more reliably overtly misdirected (i.e., where they looked). Our results illustrate that within a more naturalistic context children are significantly more distracted than adults, and this distraction can have major implications on their visual awareness.
先前的研究表明，在10岁至成年期间，认知控制能力有显著提高。本研究的目的是在自然情境下，即成年人和儿童观看魔术表演时，探究他们注意力控制的差异。我们测量了参与者观看一个误导性魔术时的眼动情况，该魔术利用注意力误导来防止观察者注意到一个显著的视觉事件。尽管该事件是在众人眼前发生的，但我们一半的参与者都未能察觉到。10岁以下的儿童比成年人更不容易注意到该事件，而且他们的注意力也更容易被明显地误导（即他们的视线方向）。我们的研究结果表明，在更自然的情境中，儿童比成年人更容易分心，这种分心会对他们的视觉意识产生重大影响。
