Mechanisms of Sustained Selective Attention in 2- to 6- Year-Old Children

描述（由申请人提供）：持续的选择性注意力是我们在一段时间内处理环境某些部分而排除其他部分的能力的基础。因此，持续的选择性注意是一个至关重要的过程，使一个人能够处理相关信息，忽略与手头任务无关的信息，无论是语言理解，分类还是问题解决。然而，目前还没有完全理解这种至关重要的能力的机制。这项研究的目的是调查2至6岁儿童持续选择性注意的机制，这一年龄段的儿童的这种能力已被证明发展迅速。在调查这种能力的机制的挑战之一是开发一个任务，是充分激励和挑战不同年龄的参与者。另一个挑战是开发一项任务，使人们有可能在同一实验范式内评估持续选择性注意的自动和自愿组成部分。该研究将（1）开发一个吸引人的任务，适用于调查广泛年龄组（包括2岁以下的儿童）的持续选择性注意的自愿和自动组成部分，并（2）利用该任务调查2至6岁儿童的持续选择性注意机制。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的项目将启动一个新的研究线调查机制的持续选择性注意力在2至6岁的儿童使用一种新的基于计算机的对象跟踪任务。除了产生新的经验和理论知识，拟议的研究将开发的方法，可能有重要的实际意义的早期识别儿童的风险发展注意力缺陷障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sustained selective attention underlies our ability to process some parts of the environment at the exclusion of others over a period of time. Therefore, sustained selective attention is a crucially important process enabling one to process relevant information and ignore information irrelevant to the task at hand, be it language comprehension, categorization, or problem solving. However, development of the mechanisms underlying this crucially important ability is not fully understood at present. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate mechanisms of sustained selective attention in 2- to 6-year-old children, age at which this ability has been shown to develop rapidly. One of the challenges in investigating mechanisms of this ability is developing a task that is sufficiently motivating and challenging to participants of different ages. Another challenge is developing a task that makes it possible to assess automatic and voluntary components of sustained selective attention within the same experimental paradigm. The proposed research will (1) develop an engaging task suitable for investigating voluntary and automatic components of sustained selective attention across a wide range of age groups, including children as young as two years of age, and (2) utilize this task to investigate mechanisms of sustained selective attention in 2- to 6-year-old children. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed project will initiate a new line of research investigating mechanisms of sustained selective attention in 2- to 6-year-old children using a novel computer-based Object Tracking task. In addition to generating new empirical and theoretical knowledge, the proposed research will develop methodology that may have important practical implications for early identification of children at risk for developing attention deficit disorder.