Browsing by Author "Salminen, Laura"

Objectives Executive functions and attentional control are important for development of self-regulation and can be studied in childhood with simple eye tracking tasks. Typically saccades to new targets are slower and easier to inhibit when gaze is fixated on a target. This effect decreases in typical development as eye motor functions become more flexible and controlled. In this study orientation was expected to be faster and maintenance of attention and inhibition of orientation more difficult when the target is removed. The effect and eye motor control were expected to vary, and their relationship to executive functions and general cognitive skills was studied. Methods Study consisted of 52 typically developing 5-7 year old children whose saccadic reaction times and attentional stability and inhibition were evaluated in conditions which differed in terms of fixational targets. Reaction times and proportion of successful inhibition and their differences between the conditions in both tasks were used to predict children’s performance in cognitive tests of executive and attentional control, general cognitive ability and parent rated executive skills. Results and conclusions Fixation to target slowed orientation responses and supported attentional stability and inhibition. Smaller effect of the condition on orienting and better attentional stability were related to better perceptual organization and more parent rated hyperactivity. More stable visual attention predicted better inhibitory control in auditory attention. Results concur with other studies on the relationship between visual fixation and orienting in typical development and suggest simple eye tracking tasks to complement assessment of children’s neurocognitive skills.