Developmental differences in cognitive control of social information

We investigated developmental differences in the ability to exert cognitive control in the context of distracting spatial cues varying in social significance. Adults and children (6–13 years) were asked to classify target words (LEFT/RIGHT) that were accompanied by a distracter arrow or averted gaze pointing in a direction that was congruent, incongruent, or neutral (bar without arrowheads, central gaze) relative to the target word. Results showed that interference from averted eye‐gaze differed between adults and children indicating that cognitive control of social information improves with age. These age differences did not generalize to the interference effect from arrows. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that adults are better at inhibiting and/or to ignore another person's distracting gaze than are children.