Watch out: Children More Prone to Looking but not Seeing

Children under 14 are more likely than adults to be ‘blinded’ to their surroundings when focusing on simple things, finds a new UCL study. It explains a somewhat frustrating experience familiar to many parents and carers: young children fail to notice their carer trying to get their attention because they have little capacity to spot things outside their area of focus. The findings suggest that even something simple like looking at a loose thread on a jumper or an advert on the side of a bus might be enough to make children ‘blind’ to oncoming traffic and other dangers when walking down the street. The research, published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, could also explain why children engrossed in a book, game or television programme appear to ignore parents or teachers.

Read the complete article from the University College London (and find a link to the full text journal article) here: Watch out: Children More Prone to Looking but not Seeing