Developmental trajectories of vigilance in childhood and adolescence: Disentangling underlying mechanisms through behavioral modeling

Sustained attention is crucial for daily functioning, yet research on vigilance development has yielded inconsistent findings. These discrepancies arise partly from the use of tasks with different vigilance demands and from limitations in the indices of sensitivity and response criterion used. This study examines vigilance development in a large sample of children, adolescents, and young adults (N = 777) using a novel, fine-grained analytical approach. Performance in executive vigilance was modeled using logistic curves (hits and false alarms), while arousal vigilance based on response speed was assessed using ex-Gaussian distributions (reaction times). Results showed that children’s responses became faster, less variable, and less prone to extreme reaction times throughout development, stabilizing by late adolescence. For executive vigilance, a newly identified two-phase developmental pattern emerged. These findings highlight the significance of advanced behavioral modeling in capturing developmental changes in vigilance and provide new insights into its underlying mechanisms.