Considerable evidence suggests that attention and inhibitory behavior show differences along specific developmental stages. The present study aimed to evaluate the attention and inhibitory control of 130 children, aged six to eight years, in a go/no-go task adapted for this age group. The results suggest that 6-year-old children had significantly higher reaction times and made more errors when compared to 8-year-old children. These findings corroborate studies that indicate important differences in information processing in the age group studied, especially with regard to the attentional control capacity, related to inattentive behaviors when a goal is proposed, and the inhibitory control capacity, related to impulse response behaviors.
attention; inhibitory response; cognitive development; go/no-go task
