Developmental changes in attention to redundant and irrelevant cues: the role of perceptual learning

Mills, Rosemary Suzanne Louise (1971) Developmental changes in attention to redundant and irrelevant cues: the role of perceptual learning. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The experiment was designed to determine if attention to redundant and irrelevant information decreases during development, and whether perceptual learning may account for changes in attention to such information. -- The 180 subjects consisted of equal numbers of Grade one children. Grade four children, and adults, and equal numbers of males and females. All were administered a form-discrimination task. For an equal number of subjects in each age group, the relevant dimension was accompanied by an additional correlated cue (redundant condition), an additional uncorrelated cue (irrelevant condition), or no additional cue (nonredundant condition). In the redundant and irrelevant conditions, the learning task was followed by a post-test trial in which the cards were sorted on the basis of the additional cue rather than the previously-relevant form dimension. -- For Grade four children and adults, there were no differences between conditions in sorting times or errors over trials. While there was no difference between the redundant and nonredundant conditions in Grade one children, sorting times were significantly longer in the irrelevant condition, but primarily on the first few trials. Sorting time increased on the post-test trial relative to the last learning trial in both conditions, but only in Grade one children. Errors increased on the post-test trial only in the irrelevant condition, and primarily in Grade one children. -- The results were taken to indicate that attention to irrelevant cues decreases not only during development but also as a result of short-term perceptual learning. The failure to obtain a difference between the redundant and nonredundant conditions was discussed, and several variables warranting further research were indicated.

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