Visual search in typically developing toddlers and toddlers with Fragile X or Williams syndrome

Authors: Scerif G.; Cornish K.¹; Wilding J.²; Driver J.³; Karmiloff-Smith A.⁴

Source: Developmental Science, Volume 7, Number 1, February 2004 , pp. 116-130(15)

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Abstract:

Visual selective attention is the ability to attend to relevant visual information and ignore irrelevant stimuli. Little is known about its typical and atypical development in early childhood. Experiment 1 investigates typically developing toddlers’ visual search for multiple targets on a touch-screen. Time to hit a target, distance between successively touched items, accuracy and error types revealed changes in 2- and 3-year-olds’ vulnerability to manipulations of the search display. Experiment 2 examined search performance by toddlers with Fragile X syndrome (FXS) or Williams syndrome (WS). Both of these groups produced equivalent mean time and distance per touch as typically developing toddlers matched by chronological or mental age; but both produced a larger number of errors. Toddlers with WS confused distractors with targets more than the other groups; while toddlers with FXS perseverated on previously found targets. These findings provide information on how visual search typically develops in toddlers, and reveal distinct search deficits for atypically developing toddlers.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00327.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Nottingham, UK 2: Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK 3: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK 4: Neurocognitive Development Unit, Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK

Publication date: 2004-02-01