Children's reactions to distractors in a learning situation

Investigated the performance of 90 children (51/2, 61/2, and 71/2 yr. old) on an oddity problem under 3 conditions of distraction. Ss' glances away from the task were recorded along with their learning data. On the basis of earlier findings and a hypothesis that the ability of children to mobil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 1970-01, Vol.2 (1), p.115-122
Main Author: Turnure, James E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Attention
Human
Learning
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Summary:Investigated the performance of 90 children (51/2, 61/2, and 71/2 yr. old) on an oddity problem under 3 conditions of distraction. Ss' glances away from the task were recorded along with their learning data. On the basis of earlier findings and a hypothesis that the ability of children to mobilize and direct their attention increases with age, it was predicted that the distractors employed would attenuate the performance of the younger Ss but would facilitate the performance of the older Ss. Results provided partial support for the hypothesis. The glance data offered further support for the attention mobilizing and directing hypothesis. It was found that Ss glanced significantly more after reaching a learning criterion than prior to such mastery of the task, and correlations between the learning and glance data indicated that better learners glanced less. (20 ref.)
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/h0028609