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

描述(由申请人提供)：持续的选择性注意是我们在一段时间内处理环境的某些部分而不是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，使人能够处理相关信息，而忽略与手头任务无关的信息，无论是语言理解、分类还是解决问题。然而，目前对这一至关重要的能力背后的机制的发展还没有完全了解。这项拟议的研究的目标是调查2-6岁儿童持续选择性注意的机制，在这个年龄，这种能力已经被证明发展得很快。研究这种能力的机制的挑战之一是开发一项对不同年龄段的参与者具有足够激励和挑战性的任务。另一个挑战是开发一项任务，使其能够在相同的实验范式中评估持续选择性注意的自动和自愿组成部分。这项拟议的研究将(1)开发一项引人入胜的任务，适合于研究广泛年龄段的持续选择性注意的自愿和自动成分，包括两岁以下的儿童，以及(2)利用这项任务来调查2-6岁儿童的持续选择性注意的机制。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的项目将启动一项新的研究路线，利用一种新的基于计算机的物体跟踪任务来调查2-6岁儿童持续选择性注意的机制。除了产生新的经验和理论知识外，拟议的研究还将开发可能对及早识别有患注意力缺陷障碍风险的儿童具有重要实际意义的方法。

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.