Why Are Children So Distractible? Development of Attention and Motor Control From Childhood to Adulthood

Hoyer, Roxane S.; ElShafei, Hesham A.; Hemmerlin, Julie; Bouet, Romain; Bidet-Caulet, Aurélie

doi:10.1111/cdev.13561

Cited by 32 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…To properly adapt one's behavior to the environment, a balance between top-down and bottomup attention processes is required. If bottom-up processes are too strong, distractibility will increase and sustaining attention on a task may become difficult (Hoyer et al, 2021). By contrast, if top-down processes are too efficient, one may miss important information from the environment.…”

Section: Balance Between Bottom-up and Top-down Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increase of both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes in high dream recallers

Ruby

Masson

Chatard

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with the involuntary orientation of (bottom-up) attention towards an unexpected sound are of larger amplitude in high dream recallers (HR) than in low dream recallers (LR) during passive listening, suggesting different attentional functioning. We measured bottom-up and top-down attentional performance and their cerebral correlates in 18 HR (11 women, age = 22.7 +/- 4.1 years, dream recall frequency = 5.3 +/- 1.3 days with a dream recall per week) and 19 LR (10 women, age = 22.3, DRF = 0.2 +/- 0.2) using EEG and the Competitive Attention Task. Between-group differences were found in ERPs but not in behavior. The results confirm that HR present larger ERPs to distracting sounds than LR during active listening, suggesting enhanced bottom-up processing of irrelevant sounds. HR also presented a larger contingent negative variation during target expectancy and a larger P3b response to target sounds than LR, speaking for an enhanced recruitment of top-down attention. Enhancement of both top-down and bottom-up processes in HR leads to an apparently preserved attentional balance since similar performance were observed in the two groups. Therefore, different neurophysiological profiles can result in similar cognitive performance, with some profiles possibly costlier in term of resource/energy consumption.

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Section: Balance Between Bottom-up and Top-down Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increase of both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes in high dream recallers

Ruby

Masson

Chatard

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Both focusing on a task and inhibition of the processing of task-irrelevant events, develop during childhood and adolescence (Hoyer, Elshafei et al, 2021;Ridderinkhof, van der Molen, Band, & Bashore, 1997;Thillay et al, 2015). In addition, the motivational significance of events can influence the allocation of attentional (Holeckova, Fischer, Giard, Delpuech, & Morlet, 2006;Max, Widmann, Kotz, Schröger, & Wetzel, 2015;Roye, Schröger, Jacobsen, & Gruber, 2010) and might be different in different age groups.…”

Section: Decrease In Distraction Effects With Experimental Exposure Depends On Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It can be hypothesized that children successively learn that the informational content of novel sounds is not relevant in the specific situation and then increasingly focus to task-relevant stimuli or increasingly inhibit an extensive evaluation of task-irrelevant stimuli. Immature inhibitory control has been identified as an important factor contributing to distraction in childhood (Davidson et al, 2006;Hoyer, Elshafei et al, 2021).…”

Section: Decrease In Distraction Effects With Experimental Exposure Depends On Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In early and middle childhood, the control of selective attention is frequently described as immature (Amso & Scerif, 2015;Casey, Giedd, & Thomas, 2000;Gomes, Molholm, Christodoulou, Ritter, & Cowan, 2000;Hoyer, Elshafei, Hemmerlin, Bouet, & Bidet-Caulet, 2021;Ridderinkhof & van der Stelt, 2000). This is especially important in the context of highly dynamic auditory information which has privileged access to perception and consciousness and needs to be controlled by attention (Demany, Semal, Cazalets, & Pressnitzer, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some oddball studies (cf. Table 6 in the Discussion section) reported increased distraction effects reflected by RT or hit rate in younger compared to older (based on RT, Gumenyuk, Korzyukov, Alho, Escera, & Näätänen, 2004;Wetzel, Scharf, & Widmann, 2019;Wetzel, Schröger, & Widmann, 2016) or in children compared to adults (Hoyer, Elshafei et al, 2021;Wetzel et al, 2019;Wetzel et al, 2021;Wetzel, Widmann, Berti, & Schröger, 2006) while other studies did not find increased distraction effects in children compared to adults (Horváth, Czigler, Birkás, Winkler, & Gervai, 2009;Leiva, Andrés, Servera, Verbruggen, & Parmentier, 2016;Ruhnau et al, 2013;Ruhnau, Wetzel, Widmann, & Schröger, 2010;Wetzel, 2015;Wetzel, Widmann, & Schröger, 2009) or observed similar distraction between younger and older children (Gumenyuk et al, 2001;based on hitrate, Gumenyuk et al, 2004;Hoyer, Elshafei et al, 2021;Wetzel et al, 2006;Wetzel & Schröger, 2007). These partially diverging results might be caused by several factors of the experimental design, for example characteristics of sounds (e.g., novelty, complexity) or modality and type or demands of the task (Wetzel & Schröger, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Attentional control in middle childhood is highly dynamic - Strong initial distraction is followed by advanced attention control

Volkmer¹,

Wetzel²,

Widmann³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The ability to shield against distraction while focusing on a task requires the operation of executive functions and is essential for successful learning. We investigated the short-term dynamics of distraction control in a data set of 269 children aged 4–10 years and 51 adults pooled from three studies using multilevel models. Participants performed a visual categorization task while a task-irrelevant sequence of sounds was presented which consisted of frequently repeated standard sounds and rarely interspersed novel sounds. On average, participants responded slower in the categorization task after novel sounds. This distraction effect was more pronounced in children. Throughout the experiment, the initially strong distraction effects declined to level of adults in the groups of 6- to 10-year-olds. Such a decline was neither observed in the groups of the 4- and 5-year-olds, who consistently show a high level of distraction, nor in adults, who showed a constantly low level of distraction throughout the experimental session. Results indicate that distraction control is a highly dynamic process that qualitatively and quantitatively differs between age groups.We conclude that the analysis of short-term dynamics provides valuable insights into the development of attention control and might explain inconsistent findings regarding distraction control in middle childhood. In addition, models of attention control need to be refined to account for age-dependent rapid learning mechanisms. Our findings have implications for the design of learning situations and provide an additional source of information for diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit disorders.

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Processing of task‐irrelevant sounds during typical everyday activities in children

Debnath

Wetzel

2022

Developmental Psychobiology

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Our ability to focus on a task and ignore task‐irrelevant stimuli is critical for efficient cognitive functioning. Attention control is especially required in the auditory modality as sound has privileged access to perception and consciousness. Despite this important function, little is known about auditory attention during typical everyday activities in childhood. We investigated the impact of task‐irrelevant sounds on attention during three everyday activities ‐ playing a game, reading a book, watching a movie. During these activities, environmental novel sounds were presented within a sequence of standard sounds to 7‐8‐year‐old children and adults. We measured ERPs reflecting early sound processing and attentional orienting and theta power evoked by standard and novel sounds during these activities. Playing a game versus reading or watching reduced early encoding of sounds in children and affected ongoing information processing and attention allocation in both groups. In adults, theta power was reduced during playing at mid‐central brain areas. Results show a pattern of immature neuronal mechanisms underlying perception and attention of task‐irrelevant sounds in 7‐8‐year‐old children. While the type of activity affected the processing of irrelevant sounds in both groups, early stimulus encoding processes were more sensitive to the type of activities in children.

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Why Are Children So Distractible? Development of Attention and Motor Control From Childhood to Adulthood

Cited by 32 publications

References 92 publications

Increase of both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes in high dream recallers

Increase of both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes in high dream recallers

Attentional control in middle childhood is highly dynamic - Strong initial distraction is followed by advanced attention control

Processing of task‐irrelevant sounds during typical everyday activities in children

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