Age differences in visual search for compound patterns: Long- versus short-range grouping

Visual search for compound patterns was examined in observers aged 6, 8, 10 , and 22 years. The main question was whether age-related improvement in se arch rate (response time slope over number of items) was different for patt erns defined by short- versus long-range spatial relations. Perceptual acce ss to each type of relation was varied by using elements of same contrast ( easy to access) or mixed contrast (hard to access). The results showed larg e improvements with age in search rate for long-range targets; search rate for short-range targets was fairly constant across age. This pattern held r egardless of whether perceptual access to a target was easy or hard, suppor ting the hypothesis that different processes are involved in perceptual gro uping at these two levels. The results also point to important links betwee n ontogenic and microgenic change in perception (H. Werner, 1948, 1957).