Abstract: Objective To investigate the development of selective attention in youngsters aged from 9 to 14.Methods Totally 87 youngsters aged from 9 to 14 participated and were divided into 3 groups:9 years old group (29),11 years old group (37) and 13 years old group (21).The study consisted of 3 experiments with ascending difficulty:experiment 1(judging the location of number),experiment 2(judging the value of number) and experiment 3(judging the value of specific number).Reaction times (RTs) and error rate (ER) were recorded.Results 1)RTs increased with the difficulty of experiments,while RTs decreased with age.2)ER increased with the difficulty of experiments.In expeaiment 1,ER of 11 years old group [(2.25±0.58) %] was the highest [9 years old group (0.86±0.25) %,13 years old group (1.09±0.33) %].In experiment 3,ER decreased with age.Difference between every two groups was significant.3)The distance effect of number processing in experiment 2 showed that RTs were significantly different between far numbers (1/2/8/9) and close numbers (3/4/6/7) in each age group.No significant difference was found in the D-values between the RTs of far numbers and close numbers between every two groups.Conclusions The speed of selective attention keeps developing from age 9~14,while a fluctuation phase in ER may occur at age 11~12.The distance effect keeps stable from age 9~14.

Key words: youngster, selective attention, development, number cognition

摘要： 目的 研究9~14岁青少年选择性注意功能的发展,为了解青少年注意功能发展提供试验基础。方法 选择9~14岁中小学生受试者87人,分为9岁组(29人)、11岁组(37人)和13岁组 (21人)。进行难度逐渐增加的3个注意实验:实验1(判断数字方位)、实验2(判断数字大小)和实验3(判断特定数字大小),实验过程中记录受试者的反应时和错误率。结果 1)受试者反应时随实验难度增大而延长;随年龄增大而缩短。2)受试者错误率随实验难度增大而升高,组间分析显示:实验1中,11岁组错误率[(2.25±0.58)%]高于其他2组[9岁组(0.86±0.25)%,13岁组(1.09±0.33)%];实验3中,错误率随年龄增大而降低,各年龄组两两之间比较,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。3)实验2中数字加工的距离效应显示,各年龄组对远数(1/2/8/9)的反应时均小于对近数(3/4/6/7)的反应时(P<0.05);远数和近数的反应时之差不随年龄增长而变大。结论 青少年选择性注意速度在9~14岁呈现持续发展,但错误率在11~12岁出现波动。数字加工的距离效应在9~14岁保持稳定。

关键词: 青少年, 选择性注意, 发展, 数字认知