The development of attention and response inhibition in early childhood |
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Authors: | Jami Bartgis David G. Thomas Elizabeth K. Lefler Cynthia M. Hartung |
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Affiliation: | 1. Indian Health Care Resource Center of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA;2. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA;3. University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA |
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Abstract: | The goal of this study was to examine the development of attention and response inhibition from ages 5 to 7. Forty children (20 5‐year‐olds and 20 7‐year‐olds) completed four counterbalanced phases of a continuous performance task. Phase 1 was designed to measure attention without distraction, Phase 2 was designed to measure attention with distraction, Phase 3 was designed to measure attention and response inhibition without distraction, and Phase 4 was designed to measure attention and response inhibition with distraction. With regard to attention, 7‐year‐olds performed significantly better than 5‐year‐olds. This age difference was more pronounced when distraction was present. With regard to response inhibition, there were no significant age differences. These results appear to suggest that attention improves between ages 5 and 7 but response inhibition does not. However, conclusions regarding response inhibition were limited because the distraction appeared to have had too powerful an effect on the 5‐year‐olds. Implications and future directions are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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Keywords: | attention response inhibition development |
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