Abstract
The effect of knowledge about the relation between the target and incidental context on selective attention and the development of control of attentional switching between perceptual and conceptual relationships were investigated in the present study. In Experiment 1, selective attention tasks, using 3 stimuli, were given to children (4-and 6-year-olds) and adults. For these stimuli, either the participants already knew the conceptual relationship or the perceptual relationship between the target and the incidental context, or the conceptual relationship was not known to them. The results suggest that the incidental context improved selective attention, irrespective of age, when participants had knowledge about the relationship between the target and the incidental context. In Experiment 2, stimuli depicting the conceptual or the perceptual relationship between the target and the incidental context were presented. Participants were required to switch attention, according to the selective attention tasks. The 6-year-olds and adults switched their attention accordingly, but the 4-year-olds did not. This suggests that the development of selective attention involves 2 attention-control systems.
