The Multiple Subfunctions of Attention: Differential Developmental Gateways to Literacy and Numeracy

Abstract

Attention is construed as multicomponential, but the roles of its distinct subfunctions in shaping the broader developing cognitive landscape are poorly understood. The current study assessed 3- to 6-year-olds (N=83) to: (a) trace developmental trajectories of attentional processes and their structure in early childhood and (b) measure the impact of distinct attention subfunctions on concurrent and longitudinal abilities related to literacy and numeracy. Distinct trajectories across attention measures revealed the emergence of 2 attentional factors, encompassing "executive" and "sustained-selective" processes. Executive attention predicted concurrent abilities across domains at Time 1, whereas sustained-selective attention predicted basic numeracy 1 year later. These concurrent and longitudinal constraints cast a broader light on the unfolding relations between domain-general and domain-specific processes over early childhood.

Classroom displays—Attraction or distraction? Evidence of impact on attention and learning from children with and without autism.

“…language, visuo-spatial; Steele, Karmiloff-Smith, Cornish & Scerif, 2012) and the more time we spend focused on a task, the better the learning outcome (Carroll's 'time-on-task hypothesis ', 1963). Attentional abilities follow a developmental trajectory -as children get older they get better at sustaining attention for longer periods and become less susceptible to interference from irrelevant distractors (Gaspelin, MargettJordan,& Ruthruff, 2015;Matusz et al, 2015), although attentional abilities vary between children of the same age.…”

Sustained Attention and Its Relationship to Fluid Intelligence and Working Memory in Children

“…Steinmayr and colleagues (2010) showed that sustained attention is able to moderate the relationship between intelligence and school achievement in adolescents, when school achievement is measured 5 months later. Steele et al (2012) were able to show that sustained attention did not predict numeracy when measured concurrently in children aged between 3 and 6 years, but did predict numeracy performance one year later. These studies indicate that sustained attention is at the very least involved in academic achievement and learning.…”

“…While there is a distinct lack of studies on the relationship between sustained attention and fluid intelligence in children, studies looking at the relationship between academic achievement and sustained attention may be informative in this context (Steele et al, 2012;Steinmayr, Ziegler, & Träuble, 2010). These studies find that sustained attention is significantly related to academic achievement when it is measured later in time.…”

“…These speculations are, to a certain extent in line with previously voiced theoretical considerations. Steele et al (2012) for example, explain that sustained attention may be important, not for using knowledge or cognitive ability in a certain situation, but for learning and acquiring knowledge (i.e., establishing and consolidating representations over time). This resonates with the present findings, where performance in WM is related to the online (concurrent) performance in fluid intelligence tasks, but sustained attention measures are not.…”

“…There are various ways to assess sustained attention. In studies with children, so-called Continuous Performance Tasks (CPTs) have a long history of being used to measure sustained attention and are still commonly used today (Conners, Epstein, Angold, & Klaric, 2003;Steele, Karmiloff-Smith, Cornish, & Scerif, 2012).…”