Developmental changes in attention: the effects of endogenous cueing and of distractors

We used two reaction time tasks to examine age differences in the ability t o use an endogenous cue to shift attention covertly and to ignore distracto rs. In Experiment 1, 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds and adults (n = 24 per age) were asked to push a button as soon as they detected a target that was pres ented in a cued, miscued or non-cued peripheral location at 100, 400 or 800 ms after the appearance of a central cue. In Experiment 2, 10-year-olds an d adults (n = 24 per age) were asked to indicate which of two shapes appear ed in the periphery 400 ins after a central cue, with those shapes surround ed by compatible or incompatible distractors. Unlike previous studies, the data were corrected for a reaction time bias that can inflate the apparent effect of cueing. Children were slower and more variable than adults overal l. However, there were no age differences in the effects of the cues in eit her experiment: at all ages, the speed of responding was increased similarl y by correct cueing and slowed similarly by incorrect cueing. Thus, under t hese conditions, the ability to use endogenous cites to orient covertly to the periphery is already adult-like by 8-10 years of age, although there ma y be subsequent changes in the consistency of responding. In Experiment 2, 10-year-olds were slowed more than adults by incompatible distractors. Thus , the ability to ignore distracting information is not adult-like even by 1 0 years of age. The findings suggest different rates of development for the ability to shift attention following an endogenous cite and for the abilit y to filter out irrelevant information.