Attention and the identification of parafoveal words in school-age children and adults

The goal of this study was to examine whether reading parafoveal words is more attention-demanding in 7- to 10-year-old children (2nd to 5th grade) than in adults, and whether this increase in attention interacts with visual field. In an identification task, we presented 4-letter words in the left (LVF) or right (RVF) visual fields in single unilateral (one word in one visual field), unilateral with distractor (one word + one distractor in the opposite visual field) and bilateral (two words) conditions. We also presented object drawings. The results showed that all groups of children were more sensitive to the presence of a second stimulus (distractor or word) than adults in the block of words, but not in the block of object drawings. We interpreted this result as indicating an age-related change in the attentional demands of word identification and in attentional control when reading, thus in the interaction between the attentional control system and the language network. As well, we found the same RVF superiority for words and the same attentional bias (larger distractor effect on LVF words) in children and adults, which is not in favor of the hypothesis of an age-related change in language lateralization.