Discrimination of speed in 5-year-olds and adults: are children up to speed?
We compared thresholds for discriminating changes in speed by 5-year-olds and adults for two reference speeds: 1.5 and 6 degrees s(-1). Both adults and 5-year-olds were more sensitive to changes from the faster than from the slower reference speed. Five-year-olds were less sensitive than adults at both reference speeds but significantly more immature at the slower (1.5 degrees s(-1)) than at the faster (6 degrees s(-1)) reference speed. The findings suggest that the mechanisms underlying speed discrimination are immature in 5-year-olds, especially those that process slower speeds.
Ahmed
I J
IJ
Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., Canada.
Lewis
T L
TL
Ellemberg
D
D
Maurer
D
D
D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012684:Sensory Thresholds