The development of spatial frequency discrimination

We compared thresholds for discriminating spatial frequency for children aged 5, 7, and 9 years, and adults at two baseline spatial frequencies (1 and 3 cpd). In Experiment 1, the minimum change from baseline necessary to detect a change in spatial frequency from either baseline decreased with age from 34% in 5-year-olds to 11% in 7-year-olds, 8% in 9-year-olds, and 6% in adults. The data were best fit by an exponential function reflecting the …