Читать книгу Lifespan Development - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 371

Early childhood is accompanied by dramatic improvements in attention, particularly sustained attention, the ability to remain focused on a stimulus for an extended period of time (Rueda, 2013). Young children often struggle with selective attention. Selective attention refers to the ability to systematically deploy one’s attention, focusing on relevant information and ignoring distractors. Young children do not search thoroughly when asked to compare detailed pictures and explain what’s missing from one. They have trouble focusing on one stimulus and switching their attention to compare it with other stimuli (Hanania & Smith, 2010). For example, young children who sort cards according to one dimension such as color may later be unable to successfully switch to different sorting criteria (Honomichl & Zhe, 2011). Young children’s selective attention at age 2.5 predicts working memory and response inhibition at age 3 (Veer, Luyten, Mulder, van Tuijl, & Sleegers, 2017).