title: Susceptible to distraction: children lack top-down control over spatial attention capture.
abstract: Considerable evidence has indicated that adults can exert top-down control to avoid distraction by salient-but-irrelevant stimuli. However, relatively little research has explored how this ability develops across the lifespan. In the present study, we therefore assessed how well children can control the capture of spatial attention. Children (M age = 4.2 years) and adults (M age = 21.5 years) searched for target "spaceships" of a specific color while trying to ignore salient precues that either matched or mismatched the target spaceship color. The results demonstrated that children are, in fact, more vulnerable to capture by irrelevant stimuli than are adults, even after accounting for children's overall cognitive slowing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, 1 University of New Mexico, MSC03 2220, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-1161, USA, gaspelin@unm.edu.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gaspelin
authors.forename: Tessa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Margett-Jordan
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ruthruff
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001076:Aptitude; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D000068356:Self-Control; D013028:Space Perception; D055815:Young Adult