| Abstract: | Subjects aged 8, 10, 12, and 18 years participated in two visual search tasks. In one task the rate of visual search reflected the speed of preattentive localization processes, and in the other task it additionally reflected letter identification process speeds. The data revealed that localization processes become faster from ages 8 to 12 and remain stable thereafter, and that identification processes increase in speed primarily from ages 8 to 10. Performance on a subsequent recognition task indicated that subjects of all ages were employing a similar encoding strategy during visual search. Furthermore, subjects retained general information about the features of irrelevant background letters even though recognition accuracy for more specific information about letter names was not high. The finding that localization and identification processes have different rates of development confirms the hypothesized distinction between the two and implies that developmental studies of visual scanning speed must focus upon changes in the relationships among various processes or component skills throughout development. |
