IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0198870.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information processes of task-switching and modality-shifting across development

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Peng
  • Natasha Z Kirkham
  • Denis Mareschal

Abstract

Developmental research on flexible attentional control in young children has often focused on the role of attention in task-switching in a unimodal context. In real life, children must master the art of switching attention not only between task demands, but also between sensory modalities. Previous study has shown that young children can be efficient at switching between unimodal tasks when the situation allows, incurring no greater task-switching costs than adults. However, young children may still experience a greater demand to shift attention between modalities than older participants. To address this, we tested 4-year-olds, 6-year-olds and adults on a novel cross-modal task-switching paradigm involving multisensory detection tasks. While we found age differences in absolute reaction time and accuracy, young children and adults both exhibited strikingly similar effects in task-switching, modality-shifting, and the interaction between them. Young children did not exhibit a greater attentional bottleneck on either the task level, or on the modality level; thus, the evidence suggests that young children engaged in similar cognitive operations in the current cross-modal tasks to adult participants. It appears that cognitive operations in multisensory task configuration are relatively mature between 4 and 6 years old.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Peng & Natasha Z Kirkham & Denis Mareschal, 2018. "Information processes of task-switching and modality-shifting across development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0198870
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198870
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198870
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198870&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0198870?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Duncan & Sander Martens & Robert Ward, 1997. "Restricted attentional capacity within but not between sensory modalities," Nature, Nature, vol. 387(6635), pages 808-810, June.
    2. Damien A Fair & Alexander L Cohen & Jonathan D Power & Nico U F Dosenbach & Jessica A Church & Francis M Miezin & Bradley L Schlaggar & Steven E Petersen, 2009. "Functional Brain Networks Develop from a “Local to Distributed” Organization," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(5), pages 1-14, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Janne F Ettwig & Adelbert W Bronkhorst, 2015. "Attentional Switches and Dual-Task Interference," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Jacob Taylor Fisher & Frederic René Hopp & René Weber, 2019. "Modality-Specific Effects of Perceptual Load in Multimedia Processing," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 149-165.
    3. Hong-Wen Cao & Kai-Bin Jin & Chao-Yi Li & Hong-Mei Yan, 2014. "Attentional Blink Is Hierarchically Modulated by Phonological, Morphological, Semantic and Lexical Connections between Two Chinese Characters," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-6, August.
    4. Margaret A Sheridan & Khaled Sarsour & Douglas Jutte & Mark D'Esposito & W Thomas Boyce, 2012. "The Impact of Social Disparity on Prefrontal Function in Childhood," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(4), pages 1-13, April.
    5. Peter K Boulos & Manish S Dalwani & Jody Tanabe & Susan K Mikulich-Gilbertson & Marie T Banich & Thomas J Crowley & Joseph T Sakai, 2016. "Brain Cortical Thickness Differences in Adolescent Females with Substance Use Disorders," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Troy A W Visser & Jeneva L Ohan, 2012. "How Does Information Processing Speed Relate to the Attentional Blink?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-8, March.
    7. Jianzhong Chen & Angela Tam & Valeria Kebets & Csaba Orban & Leon Qi Rong Ooi & Christopher L. Asplund & Scott Marek & Nico U. F. Dosenbach & Simon B. Eickhoff & Danilo Bzdok & Avram J. Holmes & B. T., 2022. "Shared and unique brain network features predict cognitive, personality, and mental health scores in the ABCD study," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Sander Martens & Manasa Kandula & John Duncan, 2010. "Restricted Attentional Capacity within but Not between Sensory Modalities: An Individual Differences Approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(12), pages 1-6, December.
    9. Hui Wang & Chen Chen & Hsieh Fushing, 2012. "Extracting Multiscale Pattern Information of fMRI Based Functional Brain Connectivity with Application on Classification of Autism Spectrum Disorders," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(10), pages 1-14, October.
    10. Audrey C. Luo & Valerie J. Sydnor & Adam Pines & Bart Larsen & Aaron F. Alexander-Bloch & Matthew Cieslak & Sydney Covitz & Andrew A. Chen & Nathalia Bianchini Esper & Eric Feczko & Alexandre R. Franc, 2024. "Functional connectivity development along the sensorimotor-association axis enhances the cortical hierarchy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0198870. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.