Bias in visual attention behavior in a normal school-aged population.
Hemi-field visual-spatial attention was studied on a timed letter cancellation task in proficient readers from 7th to 9th grades. Participants maintained greater accuracy in identifying targets in the left quadrants (top/bottom) when compared with the right quadrants (top/bottom), revealing a leftward bias in their responses. Effects of gender and age were evident on performance; females scored significantly higher than males, and 9th graders scored significantly higher than 7th and 8th graders. Thus, a substantial shift in brain maturation may take place from 8th to 9th grades or from the ages of 13.0 to 14.11. Discriminative characteristics of the task are analyzed by assigning greater value to targets located in the top left quadrant. The 9th graders, as compared to the younger students, and the girls, as compared to the boys, evidenced a reading-direction-related bias toward systematic preference for the upper-left to lower-right quadrants.
Cairo Valcarcel
Eduardo
E
Facultad de Psicologia, Universidad de La Habana, Havana, Cuba. cairo@psico.uh.cu
Ijalba
Elizabeth
E
Obler
Loraine K
LK
Gomez Lozano
Rosalba
R
Marin Llanes
Rusella
R
Devia Collazos
Carmenza
C
Bouza Herrera
Carlos
C
D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*