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<p>The adult visual system is characterised by high-resolution foveal vision and a peripheral field limited by crowding, the disruption to object recognition in clutter that gives a summary ‘gist’ over fine detail. In children, crowding is elevated foveally, with the estimated age where foveal crowding drops to adult-like levels varying widely from 5 to 12+ years. As crowding restricts key processes like reading, characterisation of this developmental trajectory is critical. Using methods optimised to measure crowding in children, adults and typically-developing children (<i>n</i> = 119; 3–13 years) judged the orientation of a foveal ‘VacMan’ target either in isolation or surrounded by ‘ghost’ flankers. For isolated elements, acuity (measured as gap-size thresholds) dropped rapidly to adult-like levels at 5–6 years. Thresholds rose when flanked/crowded, with elevations highest at 3–4 years, persisting at 5–6 years, and dropping to adult-like levels at 7–8 years. A meta-analysis of our results and 13 prior studies reveals a consistent developmental trajectory, despite wide methodological variations. We further demonstrate that developmental crowding shows the same selectivity for target-flanker similarity as peripheral crowding, consistent with common mechanisms. This prolonged development reveals a shifting balance in the visual system between the processing of fine detail vs. the ‘gist’ of the scene.</p>

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The development of visual acuity and crowding reveals the slow fine-tuning of foveal vision

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月24日

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  • John A. Greenwood,
  • Marilia Kyprianou,
  • Tessa M. Dekker

摘要

The adult visual system is characterised by high-resolution foveal vision and a peripheral field limited by crowding, the disruption to object recognition in clutter that gives a summary ‘gist’ over fine detail. In children, crowding is elevated foveally, with the estimated age where foveal crowding drops to adult-like levels varying widely from 5 to 12+ years. As crowding restricts key processes like reading, characterisation of this developmental trajectory is critical. Using methods optimised to measure crowding in children, adults and typically-developing children (n = 119; 3–13 years) judged the orientation of a foveal ‘VacMan’ target either in isolation or surrounded by ‘ghost’ flankers. For isolated elements, acuity (measured as gap-size thresholds) dropped rapidly to adult-like levels at 5–6 years. Thresholds rose when flanked/crowded, with elevations highest at 3–4 years, persisting at 5–6 years, and dropping to adult-like levels at 7–8 years. A meta-analysis of our results and 13 prior studies reveals a consistent developmental trajectory, despite wide methodological variations. We further demonstrate that developmental crowding shows the same selectivity for target-flanker similarity as peripheral crowding, consistent with common mechanisms. This prolonged development reveals a shifting balance in the visual system between the processing of fine detail vs. the ‘gist’ of the scene.