Rivella Carlotta, Viterbori Paola, Usai Maria Carmen
Department of Education Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2025 Aug 20;16:1609537. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1609537. eCollection 2025.
The study investigates age and sex-related differences in sustained attention and inhibitory control in a sample of children and adolescents using a continuous performance test with distractor events. In addition, the impact of distractors on sustained attention and inhibitory control is explored.
The study included 479 individuals aged 6-17 years and analyzed four indices, namely omission, timing, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.
Results revealed that both sustained attention and hyperactivity show age-related changes into adolescence, whereas impulsivity shows age-related changes only in the 6-12 age range, with no differences observed from 13 to 17. Sex differences emerged in inhibitory control: impulsivity remained consistently lower in females than in males across the entire 6-17 age range. In contrast, sex differences in hyperactivity were no longer evident by age 17. Overall, combined distractors have the greatest negative impact on performance, followed by visual and auditory distractors. However, in adolescents, lower distractors impact emerged, together with a positive impact of the auditory ones.
These findings provide helpful insight on sustained attention an inhibitory control development, showing different trajectories for impulsivity and hyperactivity. In addition, insight on the role of distractors in determining the performances emerged.
本研究使用带有干扰事件的连续操作测试，调查了儿童和青少年样本中持续注意力和抑制控制方面与年龄和性别相关的差异。此外，还探讨了干扰因素对持续注意力和抑制控制的影响。
该研究纳入了479名6至17岁的个体，并分析了四个指标，即遗漏、时间、冲动性和多动。
结果显示，持续注意力和多动在进入青春期时均呈现与年龄相关的变化，而冲动性仅在6至12岁年龄段呈现与年龄相关的变化，13至17岁未观察到差异。抑制控制方面出现了性别差异：在整个6至17岁年龄段，女性的冲动性始终低于男性。相比之下，到17岁时，多动方面的性别差异不再明显。总体而言，综合干扰因素对表现的负面影响最大，其次是视觉和听觉干扰因素。然而，在青少年中，干扰因素的影响较小，同时听觉干扰因素有积极影响。
这些发现为持续注意力和抑制控制的发展提供了有益的见解，显示出冲动性和多动的不同发展轨迹。此外，还揭示了干扰因素在决定表现方面的作用。
