Developmental changes in the processing of hierarchical shapes continue into adolescence

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Abstract

The present study was designed to trace the normal development of local and global processing of hierarchical visual forms. We presented pairs of hierarchical shapes to children and adults and asked them to indicate whether the two shapes were the same or different at either the global or the local level. In Experiments 1 (6-year-olds, 10-year-olds, adults) and 2 (10-year-olds, 14-year-olds, adults), we presented stimuli centrally. All age groups responded faster on global trials than local trials (global precedence effect), but the bias was stronger in children and diminished to the adult level between 10 and 14 years of age. In Experiment 3 (10-year-olds, 14-year-olds, adults), we presented stimuli in the left or right visual field so that they were transmitted first to the contralateral hemisphere. All age groups responded faster on local trials when stimuli were presented in the right visual field (left hemisphere); reaction times on global trials were independent of visual field. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that by 10 years of age the hemispheres have adultlike specialization for the processing of hierarchical shapes, at least when attention is directed to the global versus local level. Nevertheless, their greater bias in Experiments 1 and 2 suggests that 10-year-olds are less able than adults to modulate attention to the output from local versus global channels–perhaps because they are less able to ignore distractors and perhaps because the cerebral hemispheres are less able to engage in parallel processing.

Section snippets

Experiment 1

The purpose of Experiment 1 was to test children and adults with hierarchical shapes and a short presentation time that favors global processing in adults (Kinchla & Wolfe, 1979; Martin, 1979a). Participants saw two stimuli in rapid succession and signalled whether they were the same or different at the local (blocks 2 and 3) or global (blocks 1 and 4) level. Based on pilot testing, we chose a presentation time of 150 ms because it yielded strong effects in adults but appeared to be long enough

Experiment 2

In Experiment 1, 6-year-olds and 10-year-olds showed a stronger bias toward global processing than adults when presented with hierarchical stimuli. In Experiment 2, we explored when that processing becomes adultlike by testing 10-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and adults on a harder version of the task. We added a third shape and decreased presentation times to 50 ms in order to increase sensitivity to age differences and to allow direct comparisons with performance on a lateralized version of the

Experiment 3

Many types of study indicate specialization of the two hemispheres for global versus local processing. With event-related potentials, there is a larger P1 and N2 response at LH sites when attention is directed to the local level of stimuli than when attention is directed to the global level; in contrast, there is a larger N2 response at RH sites when attention is directed to the global level, but no difference in the P1 response (Evans et al., 2000; Heinze & Munte, 1993; Proverbio, Minniti, &

General discussion

Despite evidence that both global precedence (Colombo et al., 1995; Frick et al., 2000; Ghim & Eimas, 1988) and hemispheric specialization (Deruelle and de Schonen, 1995, Deruelle and de Schonen, 1998) are present during infancy, our results indicate that the processing of hierarchical shapes continues to develop into adolescence. The results indicate protracted development of processing hierarchical stimuli with slower development of local than of global processing: 6-year-olds in Experiment 1

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by grants to D.M. from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Human Frontiers Science Program. We thank the participants for their willingness to participate in the study and Judy Shedden and Terri Lewis for comments on an earlier draft. We also thank Ken Medaro, Nancy Defina, and Alexandra Arnold-Oatley for testing the participants.

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