Cargando…

The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence

Attentional disengagement is important for successful interaction with our environment. The efficiency of attentional disengagement is commonly assessed using the gap paradigm. There is, however, a sharp contrast between the number of studies applying the gap paradigm to clinical populations and the...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Van der Stigchel, S., Hessels, R. S., van Elst, J. C., Kemner, C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5671527/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28884226
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5085-2
_version_ 1783276251093401600
author Van der Stigchel, S.
Hessels, R. S.
van Elst, J. C.
Kemner, C.
author_facet Van der Stigchel, S.
Hessels, R. S.
van Elst, J. C.
Kemner, C.
author_sort Van der Stigchel, S.
collection PubMed
description Attentional disengagement is important for successful interaction with our environment. The efficiency of attentional disengagement is commonly assessed using the gap paradigm. There is, however, a sharp contrast between the number of studies applying the gap paradigm to clinical populations and the knowledge about the underlying developmental trajectory of the gap effect. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to investigate attentional disengagement in a group of children aged 9–15. Besides the typically deployed gap and the overlap conditions, we also added a baseline condition in which the fixation point was removed at the moment that the target appeared. This allowed us to reveal the appropriate experimental conditions to unravel possible developmental differences. Correlational analyses showed that the size of the gap effect became smaller with increasing age, but only for the difference between the gap and the overlap conditions. This shows that there is a gradual increase in the capacity to disengage visual attention with increasing age, but that this effect only becomes apparent when the gap and the overlap conditions are compared. The gradual decrease of the gap effect with increasing age provides additional evidence that the attentional system becomes more efficient with increasing age and that this is a gradual process.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5671527
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Springer Berlin Heidelberg
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-56715272017-11-17 The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence Van der Stigchel, S. Hessels, R. S. van Elst, J. C. Kemner, C. Exp Brain Res Research Article Attentional disengagement is important for successful interaction with our environment. The efficiency of attentional disengagement is commonly assessed using the gap paradigm. There is, however, a sharp contrast between the number of studies applying the gap paradigm to clinical populations and the knowledge about the underlying developmental trajectory of the gap effect. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to investigate attentional disengagement in a group of children aged 9–15. Besides the typically deployed gap and the overlap conditions, we also added a baseline condition in which the fixation point was removed at the moment that the target appeared. This allowed us to reveal the appropriate experimental conditions to unravel possible developmental differences. Correlational analyses showed that the size of the gap effect became smaller with increasing age, but only for the difference between the gap and the overlap conditions. This shows that there is a gradual increase in the capacity to disengage visual attention with increasing age, but that this effect only becomes apparent when the gap and the overlap conditions are compared. The gradual decrease of the gap effect with increasing age provides additional evidence that the attentional system becomes more efficient with increasing age and that this is a gradual process. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2017-09-07 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5671527/ /pubmed/28884226 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5085-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Research Article
Van der Stigchel, S.
Hessels, R. S.
van Elst, J. C.
Kemner, C.
The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence
title The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence
title_full The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence
title_fullStr The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence
title_full_unstemmed The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence
title_short The disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence
title_sort disengagement of visual attention in the gap paradigm across adolescence
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5671527/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28884226
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5085-2
work_keys_str_mv AT vanderstigchels thedisengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence
AT hesselsrs thedisengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence
AT vanelstjc thedisengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence
AT kemnerc thedisengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence
AT vanderstigchels disengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence
AT hesselsrs disengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence
AT vanelstjc disengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence
AT kemnerc disengagementofvisualattentioninthegapparadigmacrossadolescence