The influence of binocular visual deprivation on the development of visual-spatial attention

This article examines the effects of visual input on the development of att ention by comparing normal children to children, all more than 8 years old, who had been treated for bilateral congenital cataracts during infancy. In Experiment 1, patients pushed a button as soon as they detected a target t hat appeared 100, 400, or 800 msec after a central cue. The cue either vali dly cued the upcoming location or invalidly cued the wrong location. Patien ts (n = 16) performed normally at the 100 msec and 400 msec stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). However, when the cue preceded the target by the 800 msec SOA, patients' reaction times were not affected by the validity of the cue , especially when deprivation had extended past 4 months of age. In Experim ent 2, patients indicated which of two shapes appeared in the periphery 400 msec after a central cue, with those shapes surrounded by compatible or in compatible distracters. Patients (n = 15) differed from age-matched control s in (a) being slowed more by incompatible distracters on invalid trials, a nd (b) tending to show a larger than normal effect of the validity of the c ue preceding targets in the upper visual field. Together, these findings su ggest that the normal development of attention is influenced by early visua l experience.