注意力在孩童時期有非常顯著的發展，因此，了解兒童注意力在學齡階段的正常發展亟為重要。在認知神經科學領域中，注意力被認為有多元面向，而不同的注意力面向的發展並不相同。目前關於注意力的不同面向在學齡階段之縱貫發展以及其對其他認知能力與學習表現之研究皆普遍缺乏。本研究以縱貫追蹤方式及使用注意力網絡測驗和停止信號作業為主要研究工具，探討兒童從六歲到十歲間之注意力發展，並瞭解注意力與智力在兒童發展上之關聯及對數學成就之預測力。本研究發現：(1) 在不同的注意力面向中，只有導向性網絡和衝動控制能力在此期間快速的發展，但警覺性網絡和執行功能網絡則沒有重要的變化，而兒童的語文智力和流體智力在此期間均有明顯進步，此外，注意力和智力的個別差異整體而言在這四年逐漸減少，但兒童之間智力的差異相對於注意力的差異在發展上更為穩定；(2) 兒童在六歲時的導向性分數和執行功能分數可以有效預測四年後的語文智力表現，但相反地智力對注意力卻沒有預測力；(3) 兒童在六歲時的導向性分數可以有效預測十歲時的數學知識表現，但他們在六歲時的智力對四年後的數學表現並沒有預測力。本研究結果顯示，注意力在國小時期的發展不但有很大的可塑性，同時對於語文智力和數學成就也有其重要性。;Understanding the typical development of attention in childhood is crucial as attention shows the greatest changes in this period when children begin formal schooling and when their brain develops very rapidly. It is now widely accepted in cognitive neuroscience that attention is multidimensional and the efficiency of different attention subcomponents changes with one’s development. However, there is a general lack of developmental studies that investigate how these subcomponents of attention change during this important period of childhood and the long-term effects this has on other aspects of cognition and school learning. Therefore, the present study seeks to address this gap in the literature by exploring the developmental relationship between attention and intelligence in children during their transition to school and its predictive validity for mathematics achievement by following two cohorts of children longitudinally from 6 to 10 years of age who studied in the same kindergarten and later in the same elementary school and by using two well-validated experimental paradigms, the attention network test and the stop-signal task. This study found that, firstly, attention and intelligence showed rather opposite patterns of development. In contrast to both crystallised and fluid intelligence which showed substantial development in this period, the most dramatic development in attention was observed in the orienting network and inhibitory control, whereas the alerting and conflict networks showed no important changes. Interindividual differences in both attention and intelligence gradually reduced in these four years, but such idiosyncrasies remained rather stable in intelligence but gradually faded away in attention. Secondly, IQ was not a predictor of attention either concurrently or longitudinally, but the orienting and conflict networks were found to contribute to age-related improvement in verbal IQ in this period. Thirdly, whereas fluid intelligence was a concurrent predictor of applying and reasoning in mathematics at age 10, it was orienting of attention which was a longitudinal predictor of knowing in mathematics. These results suggest that there is great plasticity in the development of attention between the ages of 6 and 10 and highlight the importance of the orienting and conflict networks to verbal IQ and mathematics achievement.
