Kids’ Attention Struggles May Be Due to Undeveloped Working Memory
As parents, we’ve probably all struggled with getting our kids to pay attention to the task at hand. But a new study indicates that this “distributed attention” may have nothing to do with an inability to understand the task or focus. Instead, the new research indicates that children may distribute their attention broadly out of curiosity or because their working memory isn’t developed enough to finish the task without “over exploring.”
The Research
A team of researchers at The Ohio State University have conducted several studies documenting how children distribute their attention broadly. For the most recent study, they wanted to see if this could be due to distractibility.
They told participants—which included adults and children 4 to 6 years old—that they were to identify two types of bird-like creatures. The two creatures—referred to as Hibi and Gora—each had particular combinations of shapes and colors for their horn, head, beak, tail, body, feet, and wings.
The shape and color combo for six of the seven body parts predicted which of the two creatures it was with 66% accuracy. In the first part of the study, both adults and kids learned that the 7th body part was a perfect match to only one of the creatures.
To test for distractibility, the child participants had to uncover one body part at a time to determine whether the hidden creature was a Hibi or Gora. Rewards were given for faster identification.
Because both child and adult participants had learned that the tail could always identify which creature was hidden, the adults always uncovered the tail first and solidify their answer. But the children would uncover the tail first and then continue uncovering other body parts before they made their choice of creatures.
The researchers wondered if perhaps the kids just liked tapping on the buttons. So they created another study and gave both children and adults the chance to simply tap an “express” button to reveal the entire creature—or tap on individual body parts to reveal it. This time, the kids predominantly chose the express option too. This indicated that the kids weren’t just clicking the buttons for fun.
Was the exploration just simple curiosity? Study co-author and The Ohio State University psychology professor Dr. Vladimir Sloutsky thinks it’s more likely that working memory isn’t fully developed in children, preventing them from holding information long enough to complete the task.
“The children learned that one body part will tell them what the creature is, but they may be concerned that they don’t remember correctly,” explains Sloutsky. “Their working memory is still under development. They want to resolve this uncertainty by continuing to sample, by looking at other body parts to see if they line up with what they think.”
The researchers want to hold additional studies to rule out whether the issue is simply curiosity.
The study was published in the August 19, 2024, edition of the journal Psychological Science.
MBJ
Wendy Burt-Thomas writes about the brain, mental health and parenting.
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