The effects of spatial uncertainty and cue predictability on visual orienting in children

Visual orienting was studied using a task that required participants to respond to stimuli at various locations that were either accurately or inaccurately cued. Orienting abilities of children ages 6 to 8 years, and young adults (21 years) were tested under conditions of spatial uncertainty (i.e., multiple possible target locations), and variable cue predictability (i.e., variable proportion of validly cued targets). The results indicate that children orient their attentional resources automatically to abrupt visual onsets, and do so under conditions when it is not beneficial to overall performance. Adults, on the other hand, are able to control their orienting in such a way that it is limited to conditions where it improves their task efficiency. There appears to be developmental change in the ability to assess the utility of a location cue and/or to moderate responses in accordance with the utility of a cue. This finding is discussed in terms of the development of attentional control and inhibitory processes in children, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.