Возрастная динамика процессов зрительного прайминга

Abstract

In order to study the age-related development of visual priming, we compared the characteristics of the influence of a priori visual information on the identification of objects of varying degrees of complexity in children of four (n = 20), five (n = 20), and six years (n = 20). Using the priming paradigm, the dependence of the magnitude of the priming effect on the interval between the target and prime stimuli was analyzed. As targets, we used pictures of lines, animals and blots. Combined figures containing targets were presented as primes. Comparison of testing data showed that, regardless of the complexity of visual objects, the priming effect decreases with age. With the identification of lines, the reaction time decreased to both stimuli regardless of age. If animal figures were used, positive priming was observed on both targets in children of four and five years old, but in children of 6 years old, an acceleration of reaction was noted only to the target presented in prime as a global element. When presented with figures of blots, reaction times increased in four-year-olds and decreased in five and six years old. At the same time, the positive priming effect was lower and was observed at large values of the interval between prime and test in five-year-old children compared with six-year-old children. The results indicate that the mechanisms of visual priming in children of younger age groups are active when using familiar and simple objects, for which anticipatory schemes have already been formed.