Hill, LJB orcid.org/0000-0002-4069-5121, Coats, RO orcid.org/0000-0003-4415-408X, Mushtaq, F orcid.org/0000-0001-7881-1127 et al. (3 more authors) (2016) Moving to capture children’s attention: developing a methodology for measuring visuomotor attention. PLoS ONE, 11 (7). e0159543. ISSN 1932-6203
Abstract
Attention underpins many activities integral to a child’s development. However, methodological limitations currently make large-scale assessment of children’s attentional skill impractical, costly and lacking in ecological validity. Consequently we developed a measure of ‘Visual Motor Attention’ (VMA) - a construct defined as the ability to sustain and adapt visuomotor behaviour in response to task-relevant visual information. In a series of experiments, we evaluated the capability of our method to measure attentional processes and their contributions in guiding visuomotor behaviour. Experiment 1 established the method’s core features (ability to track stimuli moving on a tablet-computer screen with a hand-held stylus) and demonstrated its sensitivity to principled manipulations in adults’ attentional load. Experiment 2 standardised a format suitable for use with children and showed construct validity by capturing developmental changes in executive attention processes. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that children with and without coordination difficulties would show qualitatively different response patterns, finding an interaction between the cognitive and motor factors underpinning responses. Experiment 4 identified associations between VMA performance and existing standardised attention assessments and thereby confirmed convergent validity. These results establish a novel approach to measuring childhood attention that can produce meaningful functional assessments that capture how attention operates in an ecologically valid context (i.e. attention's specific contribution to visuomanual action).
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Hill et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | visual attention; motor control; sustained attention; executive attention; psychometric testing; assessment; child development |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Waterloo Foundation 1285-1986 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jul 2016 11:21 |
Last Modified: | 18 Mar 2019 15:35 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159543 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
Identification Number: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0159543 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:102261 |