Seven-year-olds allocate attention like adults unless working memory is overloaded

Previous studies have indicated that visual working memory performance increases with age in childhood, but it is not clear why. One main hypothesis has been that younger children are less efficient in their attention; specifically, they are less able to exclude irrelevant items from working memory...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental science 2010-01, Vol.13 (1), p.120-133
Main Authors: Cowan, Nelson, Morey, Candice C., AuBuchon, Angela M., Zwilling, Christopher E., Gilchrist, Amanda L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Age Differences
Age Factors
Attention - physiology
Attention Control
Child
Child Development - physiology
Cognitive Ability
Color Perception - physiology
Developmental psychology
Efficiency
Eyes & eyesight
Female
Humans
Hypotheses
Male
Memorization
Memory
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Short Term Memory
Statistics as Topic
Task Analysis
Visual Stimuli
Young Adult
Young Children
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Summary:Previous studies have indicated that visual working memory performance increases with age in childhood, but it is not clear why. One main hypothesis has been that younger children are less efficient in their attention; specifically, they are less able to exclude irrelevant items from working memory to make room for relevant items. We examined this hypothesis by measuring visual working memory capacity under a continuum of five attention conditions. A recognition advantage was found for items to be attended as opposed to ignored. The size of this attention‐related effect was adult‐like in young children with small arrays, suggesting that their attention processes are efficient even though their working memory capacity is smaller than that of older children and adults. With a larger working memory load, this efficiency in young children was compromised. The efficiency of attention cannot be the sole explanation for the capacity difference.
ISSN:1363-755X
1467-7687
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00864.x