Age, Individuality, and Context as Factors in Sustained Visual Attention During the Preschool Years

In 3 studies, the authors explored age changes and individual differences in preschool children's sustained attention in several different contexts-watching a videotape, playing with toys, and performing reaction time tasks. Various indexes of attention increased from 30 months to 54 months, wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 1998-05, Vol.34 (3), p.454-464
Main Authors: Ruff, Holly A, Capozzoli, Mary, Weissberg, Renata
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Age Differences
Attention
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Development
Child psychology
Child, Preschool
Context
Context Effect
Cross Sectional Studies
Developmental psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Individual Differences
Individuality
Male
Performance Factors
Play and Playthings
Preschool Children
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Role
Social Environment
Sustained Attention
Television
Television Viewing
Visual Attention
Visual Perception
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Summary:In 3 studies, the authors explored age changes and individual differences in preschool children's sustained attention in several different contexts-watching a videotape, playing with toys, and performing reaction time tasks. Various indexes of attention increased from 30 months to 54 months, whereas inattention decreased. Changes tended to occur earlier for play and television viewing than for the reaction time task. Together, the results also provide evidence for individual differences in measures of attention and inattention through high internal consistency and stability over time within situations. Correlations across situations, however, were low to modest. These results suggest that children have stable tendencies to focus and sustain attention in particular contexts but that their attention varies with the demands of the task and their ability or interest in meeting those demands.
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/0012-1649.34.3.454