Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (2): 292-304.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.02.15

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Attentional Blink in Children: The Developmental Fine-tuning in the Temporal Dimension of Attention

LIN Yue1,2, SU Yanjie1,2   

  1. 1. School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871;
    2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871
  • Published:2025-03-17

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Abstract: Attentional blink is a phenomenon that reflects the limitation of visual attention in processing multiple targets within a concise time window. However, sacrificing the processing of the second target is beneficial to the refinement of the first target, thus also reflecting a cognitive strategy. The trade-off between simultaneous processing of multiple targets and maintaining the representation of target features is reflected in the development of attentional blink. As children grow older, they make more errors when reporting the second target during the blink, but the time window of the blink shortens, and the blink also recovers more quickly. Children also made more swap errors and feature binding errors than adults. This development trajectory reflects the developmental fine-tuning in the temporal dimension of attention, which may depend on the development of children’s perception and attention, working memory, and inhibitory control. Future research can further explore the developmental fine-tuning in the temporal dimension of attention based on integrating behavioral indicators and neural correlates. Attentional blink also provides a novel approach to exploring the development of children’s consciousness awareness and cross-model integration.

Key words: attentional blink, visual attention, rapid serial visual presentation, children

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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