ERIC Number: EJ1305576
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
Why Are Children so Distractible? Development of Attention and Motor Control from Childhood to Adulthood
Hoyer, Roxane S.; Elshafei, Hesham; Hemmerlin, Julie; Bouet, Romain; Bidet-Caulet, Aurélie
Child Development, v92 n4 pe716-e737 Jul-Aug 2021
Distractibility is the propensity to behaviorally react to irrelevant information. Although children are more distractible the younger they are, the precise contribution of attentional and motor components to distractibility and their developmental trajectories have not been characterized yet. We used a new behavioral paradigm to identify the developmental dynamics of components contributing to distractibility in a large cohort of French participants balanced, between age groups, in gender and socioeconomic status (N = 352; age: 6-25). Results reveal that each measure of these components, namely voluntary attention, distraction, impulsivity, and motor control, present a distinct maturational timeline. In young children, increased distractibility is mostly the result of reduced sustained attention capacities and enhanced distraction, whereas in teenagers, it is the result of decreased motor control and increased impulsivity.
Descriptors: Child Development, Psychomotor Skills, Motor Development, Attention Control, Developmental Stages, Gender Differences, Age Differences, Socioeconomic Status, Conceptual Tempo, Maturity (Individuals), Adolescents, Young Children, Foreign Countries, Adults, Correlation
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: France
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A