A Developmental Study on Effective Filtering: The Role of Flanker Distance and Perceptual Load

The effect of perceptual load and target-flanker proximity on developmental patterns of filtering efficiency was examined among children 5-12 years and a group of adults. The participants were asked to respond to a centrally presented arrow surrounded by congruent or incongruent flanker arrows. Filtering was operationalized in terms of the flanker congruency effect (FCE) and measured as the response latency difference between trials with incongruent flankers versus trials with congruent flankers. Conditions varied with regard to target-flanker distances and levels of perceptual load. Developmental changes in susceptibility to the FCE did not appear to be related to target-flanker proximity, but were related to a perceptual load manipulation that involved varying the response associated with the target. The FCE was larger in magnitude for 7-10 year old children than for 11-12 year old children and adults under low perceptual load conditions. However, these developmental differences in susceptibility to the effects of interference were no longer apparent under high perceptual load conditions. This finding suggests differential developmental trajectories for filtering efficiency based on the processing demands involved in the task, and can be understood within the framework of the perceptual load model of selective attention.