title: Development of coordination in time estimation.
abstract: How to best characterize cognitive development? The claim put forward in this article is that development is the improvement of a kind of coordination among a variety of factors. To determine the development of coordination in a cognitive task, children between 4 and 12 years of age and adults participated in a time estimation task: They had to press a button every time they thought a short time interval had passed. The resulting data series of estimated time intervals was then subjected to a set of fractal analyses to quantify coordination in terms of its degree of "rigidity" (very highly integrated) vs. "looseness" (poorly integrated). Results show a developmental trajectory toward pink-noise patterns, suggesting that cognitive development progresses from a very loose, poorly integrated coordination of factors toward a pattern that expresses more integration, perhaps due to an optimization of constraints, that allows for a more stable coordination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Adam W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Kiefer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wallot
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Lori J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Gresham
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kloos
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Riley
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shockley
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Van Orden
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*