{"doi":"10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00921.x","title":"Selective attention and attention switching: towards a unified developmental approach","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>We review and relate two literatures on the development of attention in children: one concerning flexible attention switching and the other concerning selective attention. The first is a growing literature on preschool children’s performances in an attention‐switching task indicating that children become more flexible in their attentional control during the preschool years. The second literature encompasses a large and robust set of phenomena for the same developmental period that indicates a protracted course of development for selective attention in children. We ask whether developmental changes in processes of selective attention may contribute to more flexible attention switching. We consider the two sets of phenomena with respect to this question and propose an empirical agenda for their joint study that may lead ultimately to a unified account of the development of selective attention and attention switching.</jats:p>","journal":"Developmental Science","year":2010,"id":19334,"datarank":5.391649535182304,"base_score":5.056245805348308,"endowment":5.056245805348308,"self_citation_contribution":0.7584368708022463,"citation_network_contribution":4.633212664380058,"self_endowment_contribution":0.7584368708022463,"citer_contribution":4.633212664380058,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":156,"citer_count":152,"citers_with_citation_signal":121,"citers_with_endowment":121,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":131375,"name":"Linda B. Smith","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":131374,"name":"Rima Hanania","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":5.056245805348308,"endowment":5.056245805348308,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"20590726","pmcid":"PMC2939469","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2135476666","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"NICHD NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 HD028675","title":null},{"funder_name":"NIMH NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 MH060200","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"2R01MH060200-05","title":"Cross-linguistic study of nominal category formation"},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"5R01HD028675-19","title":"The Shape Bias in Early Word Learning"}],"total_grants":4,"fwci":3.2857,"citation_percentile":0.92227256,"influential_citations":6,"citation_trend":[{"year":2012,"count":13},{"year":2013,"count":16},{"year":2014,"count":4},{"year":2015,"count":12},{"year":2016,"count":6},{"year":2017,"count":8},{"year":2018,"count":8},{"year":2019,"count":12},{"year":2020,"count":11},{"year":2021,"count":12},{"year":2022,"count":17},{"year":2023,"count":16},{"year":2024,"count":6},{"year":2025,"count":3},{"year":2026,"count":2}],"oa_status":"closed","license":"Wiley Online Library User Agreement","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc2939469?pdf=render","host_type":"GREEN"},{"url":"https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1467-7687.2009.00921.x","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00921.x","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00921.x","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20590726","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/2939469","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00921.x","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies","Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder","Child and Animal Learning Development","Medicine","Psychology","05 social sciences","0501 psychology and cognitive sciences","Attention","Child","Child Development","Discrimination Learning","Humans","Pattern Recognition, Visual","Psychomotor Performance"],"mesh_terms":["Attention","Child","Child Development","Discrimination Learning","Humans","Pattern Recognition, Visual","Psychomotor Performance"],"keywords":["Psychology","Selective attention","Attentional control","Cognitive psychology","Joint attention","Visual attention","Task switching","Task (project management)","Set (abstract data type)","Child development","Attention span","Developmental psychology","Cognition","Neuroscience","Autism","Computer science","Discrimination Learning","Pattern Recognition, Visual","Humans","Attention","Child","Psychomotor Performance"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Quality Education"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-04T03:21:34.025927Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}