Item Details

title

Exploring Distractor Suppression in Diverse Populations: A Comparative Analysis of Children and Adults

author

Seitz, Catherine W

abstract

We must regularly inhibit our attention from selecting the irrelevant, yet salient, distractors that surround us. Adults have the ability to suppress distractors in certain circumstances, sometimes without explicitly knowing they are doing it. In order to implicitly suppress a distracting stimulus, the stimulus must have a consistent feature across time that the observer can learn. Being able to do this may allow adults to block the irrelevant information from reaching their visual working memory, allowing them to hold more goal-relevant information in memory. The present study investigated distractor suppression effects using a paradigm designed for diverse populations, such that it is shorter and more engaging than the typical design. Experiment 1 replicated previous suppression effects in an adult sample. Experiment 2 investigated the suppression effect in adults again, as well as 6- to 12-year-olds with a further shortened paradigm and unlimited time to respond. Adults showed the same effect, while 9- to 12-year-olds showed some learning where a distractor was likely to appear but were unable to suppress their tendency to attend to that location. Future directions include confirming the effect found in late childhood and determining if children in middle childhood show the same effect as older children.

subject

Attentional control

Distractor suppression

visual working memory

contributor

Sali, Anthony W (advisor)

Best, Deborah L (committee member)

Dagenbach, Dale (committee member)

Salinas, Emilio (committee member)

date

2023-07-25T17:48:27Z (accessioned)

2025-06-06T08:30:07Z (available)

2023 (issued)

degree

Psychology (discipline)

embargo

2025-06-06 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/102219 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis