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Development of spatial biases in school‐aged children
Author(s) -
Hoyos Patricia M.,
Kim Na Yeon,
Cheng Debby,
Finkelston Abigail,
Kastner Sabine
Publication year - 2021
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.13053
Subject(s) - psychology , bisection , cognitive psychology , spatial ability , task (project management) , perception , reading (process) , developmental psychology , number line , cognition , mathematics education , mathematics , neuroscience , political science , law , economics , geometry , management
In the adult brain, biases in the allocation of spatial attention can be measured using a line bisection task and are directly relatable to neural attention signals in the fronto‐parietal attention network. Behavioral studies on the development of spatial biases have yielded a host of inconsistent results, likely due to variance in sample size, definition of experimental groups, and motor confounds introduced by using a paper‐and‐pencil version of a line bisection task. Here, we used a perceptual, computerized version of this task and examined the development of spatial biases in 459 children from grades 1–8 and 61 college freshmen. We found that children in early elementary grades exerted a significant leftward bias that gradually diminished with advancing grade level. We further show that among children in early elementary school grades, the degree of leftward spatial bias predicted better performance on a rapid automatized naming test, a predictor of reading ability. Significant leftward biases in early elementary school grades may be due to reading experience, thereby reflecting an interaction of the attention network with the evolving reading network.