Short Report: Environmental Sensitivity in Children Is Associated With Visual Working Memory and Visual Search Performance

ABSTRACT

Highly sensitive children perceive and process stimuli more deeply but the mechanisms enabling this deeper processing are not widely understood yet. Ninety‐seven 7–9‐year‐old ( M  = 7.99, SD = 0.34) UK primary school children (47% girls) completed tasks on visual working memory and visual search. Teachers and children reported on children's environmental sensitivity. Only child‐rated sensitivity positively predicted visual working memory performance, with less sensitive children scoring particularly low. Teacher‐rated sensitivity predicted fewer commission errors in a visual search task. Sensitivity did not predict reaction times. The discussion highlights that we did not find strong evidence for greater visual working memory in more sensitive children, but less sensitive children's memory merits further research. Visual search findings suggested that more sensitive children make fewer impulsive mistakes, aligning with theory and research. In conclusion, we identified novel evidence of environmental sensitivity predicting both visual working memory and visual search performance.