Distractibility is the propensity to behaviorally react to irrelevant information. Although children are more distractible the younger they are, the precise contribution of attentional and motor components to distractibility and their developmental trajectories have not been characterized yet. We used a new behavioral paradigm to identify the developmental dynamics of components contributing to distractibility in a large cohort of French participants balanced, between age groups, in gender and socioeconomic status (N = 352; age: 6–25). Results reveal that each measure of these components, namely voluntary attention, distraction, impulsivity, and motor control, present a distinct maturational timeline. In young children, increased distractibility is mostly the result of reduced sustained attention capacities and enhanced distraction, whereas in teenagers, it is the result of decreased motor control and increased impulsivity.

中文翻译：

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为什么孩子这么容易分心？从童年到成年的注意力和运动控制的发展

分心是对不相关信息做出行为反应的倾向。尽管儿童越小越容易分心，但注意力和运动成分对分心及其发展轨迹的确切贡献尚未得到表征。我们使用一种新的行为范式来确定在大量法国参与者中导致注意力分散的因素的发展动态，这些参与者在年龄组、性别和社会经济地位之间保持平衡（N = 352; 年龄：6-25）。结果表明，对这些组成部分的每一项测量，即自愿注意、分心、冲动和运动控制，都呈现出不同的成熟时间线。在幼儿中，注意力分散的增加主要是持续注意力能力下降和注意力分散的结果，而在青少年中，它是运动控制能力下降和冲动性增加的结果。