Valeria Reis do Canto-Pereira¹ (), Ronald Ranvaud², Luiz Henrique Canto-Pereira³; ¹University of Brasilia, ²University of São Paulo, ³Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services

Spatial visual attention is one of the key elements of visual perception, and its spatial allocation allow us to priority a given stimuli location (Carrasco, 2019). Although there are several evidences on how spatial attention is distributed in children and teens, there are some gaps about their ability to divide attention. This study was aimed to investigate how children and teens allocate their attentional resources by measuring reaction times under different experimental conditions. Participants were children aged 8 to 15 years (n=68) divided in different groups according to age. There were two different experimental conditions. In experiment I participants were asked to direct their attention towards a square frame subtending 4° of visual angle located in the center of the screen. In experiment II participants were instructed to attend, simultaneously, two square frames subtending 4° of visual located 10° to the right and left of the center of the screen. The task was to respond (key presses) to the onset of a target, a white dot subtending 0.2° of visual angle presented at 154 different positions, while always fixating a small cross in the center of the visual field. Stimulus duration was brief (100ms) to avoid eye movements and concomitant attentional shifts. Experiments were carried out in a counterbalanced way. Our results confirm previous findings of participants in the older group showed an increase in performance (faster reaction times and lower error rates). In experiment I, as expected, reaction times were faster in the attended region (central square frame). In experiment II (divided attention condition) younger participants were not able to disengage attention from fixation, whereas teen participants, in 15 years old group, showed divided attention. These results suggest that teens 15 years of age have reached the ability to divide attention as adults.

Acknowledgements: CNPq Grant # 142080