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Words, shape, visual search and visual working memory in 3‐year‐old children
Author(s) -
Vales Catarina,
Smith Linda B.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/desc.12179
Subject(s) - visual search , psychology , working memory , cued speech , representation (politics) , cognitive psychology , n2pc , visual perception , object (grammar) , visual memory , cognition , perception , artificial intelligence , computer science , neuroscience , politics , political science , law
Do words cue children's visual attention, and if so, what are the relevant mechanisms? Across four experiments, 3‐year‐old children ( N = 163) were tested in visual search tasks in which targets were cued with only a visual preview versus a visual preview and a spoken name. The experiments were designed to determine whether labels facilitated search times and to examine one route through which labels could have their effect: By influencing the visual working memory representation of the target. The targets and distractors were pictures of instances of basic‐level known categories and the labels were the common name for the target category. We predicted that the label would enhance the visual working memory representation of the target object, guiding attention to objects that better matched the target representation. Experiments 1 and 2 used conjunctive search tasks, and Experiment 3 varied shape discriminability between targets and distractors. Experiment 4 compared the effects of labels to repeated presentations of the visual target, which should also influence the working memory representation of the target. The overall pattern fits contemporary theories of how the contents of visual working memory interact with visual search and attention, and shows that even in very young children heard words affect the processing of visual information.