Effects of scene contents on change detection in children

Children are better able to detect changes in photographs than in line drawings (Shore et al, 2006), but the reasons for this advantage are unclear. One explanation is that the photographs were more interesting. If so, children could detect better changes to interesting images than boring ones. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated the semantic content of pictures in a flicker change detection task. Our results contradicted this prediction: marginal changes to images containing more interesting subject matter were detected more slowly than changes to boring content. Interesting content made it harder for children to find the changes.