The role of temperament in the Attentional Network Task in 6 and 7 years-old

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Attention deployment may be one of the most critical individual differences in learning.There are several factors that influence people's ability to direct and maintain their attention such as: motivation, attitude and, recently, temperament has been considered as one of the factors that contribute to the process of directing our attention (Posner & Rothbart, 2018; Rothbart, Sheese & Posner, 2007).
Temperament has been defined as the individual differences constitutionally based on reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981), and even though temperament traits maintain constant across cultures, studies have shown the influence of the environment in the way these traits combine (Rothbart, 2007).
The main goal of the present research was to explore the role of temperament in the process of attention, using the Attentional Network Task in 6 and 7 years-old. Specifically we wanted to analyze the relationship between temperament traits and the attentional networks proposed by Posner and Petersen (2012): Alerting, Orienting and Executive.
Fifty-one children (24 girls) participated in the study, aged 6 and 7 years-old (M=6.4 years-old) from first and second grades of elementary school in Morelos, Mexico. Temperamental traits were measured using the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001) while the attentional processes were evaluated with the Attentional Network Task (Rueda et al., 2004). The study was conducted under a controlled laboratory situation, free of auditory and visual distractors.
Data was analyzed at three different levels: a) correlations between temperament traits and attentional networks, b) by temperament traits and c) by temperament profiles (combination of Negative Affectivity and Effortful Control).
Results showed that Negative Affectivity predicted performance in the Orienting Network (r= -.278,p = .024). Likewise, the analysis conducted to explore the differences by dimension showed that the group with higher scores in the Negative Affectivity dimension, have a lower score when performing the Orienting Network task [t (49) = 2.121, p = .039)].
On the other hand, the analysis conducted by profile groups (Dixon & Driggers-Jones, 2018) showed an effect of the temperamental profile [F (3,47) = 4.008, p = .013], in which only the so called In Risk group (i.e., high score in Negative Affectivity and a low score in Effortful Control), had a significantly lower performance at the Orienting Network (M = -26.785, SD = 47.782). This suggests that the interaction between Negative Affectivity and Effortful have an influence on children’s attention in the Orienting Network.
The present research has been motivated for the influence of the individual differences, such as the temperament. This study allows us to confirm the role of temperament in the attentional process in a mexican population. Moreover, it shows the advantage of study temperament using an approach that considers the differences in each type of profile.

Authors

• Miriam Valeria Miramontes, Laboratorio de Comunicación Humana y Cognición
  Presenting Author

• Alberto Falcón, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ulianov Montano Juárez
  Non-Presenting Author