Effects of gesture and target on 12- and 18-month-olds' joint visual attention to objects in front of or behind them.

Factors affecting joint visual attention in 12- and 18-month-olds were investigated. In Experiment 1 infants responded to 1 of 3 parental gestures: looking, looking and pointing, or looking, pointing, and verbalizing. Target objects were either identical to or distinctive from distractor objects. Targets were in front of or behind the infant to test G. E. Butterworth's (1991b) hypothesis that 12-month-olds do not follow gaze to objects behind them. Pointing elicited more episodes of joint visual attention than looking alone. Distinctive targets elicited more episodes of joint visual attention than identical targets. Although infants most reliably followed gestures to targets in front of them, even 12-month-olds followed gestures to targets behind them. In Experiment 2 parents were rotated so that the magnitude of their head turns to fixate front and back targets was equivalent. Infants looked more at front than at back targets, but there was also an effect of magnitude of head turn. Infants' relative neglect of back targets is partly due to the "size" of adult's gesture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term recognition memory for faces assessed by visual paired comparison in 3- and 6-month-old infants.

It has been argued that operant conditioning is the only type of long-term memory present in infants prior to 6 months of age. In this study, memory for faces was investigated in 3- and 6-month-old infants with a visual paired-comparison task. In Experiment 1, infants were habituated to a face presented in different poses; recognition was assessed after a 2-min or a 24-hr retention interval. The 6-month-old infants and the male but not the female 3-month-old infants exhibited novelty preferences. A 2nd experiment showed that 3-month-old female infants were delayed relative to male infants in their face-processing ability rather than in their memory capacity. The results of Experiment 3 demonstrated in 3-month-olds an electrophysiological correlate of delayed recognition memory. These findings are discussed in the context of the neural systems thought to be involved in visual recognition memory (but not in procedural memory), namely the limbic system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-experience as a mechanism for learning about others: A training study in social cognition.

Using a gaze-following task, the authors assessed whether self-experience with the view-obstructing properties of blindfolds influenced infants' understanding of this effect in others. In Experiment 1, 12-month-olds provided with blindfold self-experience behaved as though they understood that a person wearing a blindfold cannot see. When a blindfolded adult turned to face an object, these infants gaze followed significantly less than control infants who had either (a) seen and felt the blindfold but whose view had not been obstructed by it or (b) experienced a windowed blindfold through which they could see. In Experiment 2, 18-month-olds experienced either (a) a trick blindfold that looked opaque but could be seen through, (b) an opaque blindfold, or (c) baseline familiarization. Infants receiving trick-blindfold experience now followed a blindfolded adult's gaze significantly more than controls. The authors propose 3 mechanisms underlying infants' capacity to use self-experience as a framework for understanding the visual perception of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Ames window illusion: Perception of illusory motion by human infants.

The sensitivity of human infants, 5?-9 months of age, to the illusory oscillation of the Ames window was assessed in three experiments that employed some variant of the habituation–dishabituation and forced-choice preferential looking paradigms. In Experiment 1, three groups—5?, 7?, and 9 months of age—were given a visual choice between rotating rectangular and Ames windows after exposure to a rotating circular form. The two older groups preferred the Ames window. The results of Experiment 2 showed that this preference is not based on structural differences between the two windows. In Experiment 3, familiarization with an Ames window produced a preference for rotary motion while familiarization with a rectangular window produced a preference for oscillatory motion. These results suggest that sensitivity to the illusion emerges around 7? months of age, an outcome consistent with the emergence, at this time, of sensitivity to pictorial cues to depth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automated gaze-contingent objects elicit orientation following in 8-month-old infants.

The current study tested whether the purely amodal cue of contingency elicits orientation following behavior in 8-month-old infants. We presented 8-month-old infants with automated objects without human features that did or did not react contingently to the infants' fixations recorded by an eye tracker. We found that an object's occasional orientation toward peripheral targets was reciprocated by a congruent visual orientation following response by infants only when it had displayed gaze-contingent interactivity. Our finding demonstrates that infants' gaze-following behavior does not depend on the presence of a human being. The results are consistent with the idea that, in 8-month-old infants, the detection of contingent reactivity, like other communicative signals, can itself elicit the illusion of being addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants' understanding of the link between visual perception and emotion: "If she can't see me doing it, she won't get angry."

Two experiments investigated 18-month-olds' understanding of the link between visual perception and emotion. Infants watched an adult perform actions on objects. An emoter then expressed neutral affect or anger toward the adult in response to the adult's actions. Subsequently, infants were given 20 s to interact with each object. In Experiment 1, the emoter faced infants with a neutral expression during each 20-s response period but looked at either a magazine or the infant. In Experiment 2, the emoter faced infants with a neutral expression, and her eyes were either open or closed. When the emoter visually monitored infants' actions, the infants regulated their object-directed behavior on the basis of their memory of the emoter's affect. However, if the previously angry emoter read a magazine (Experiment 1) or closed her eyes (Experiment 2), infants were not governed by her prior emotion. Infants behaved as if they expected the emoter to get angry only if she could see them performing the actions. These findings suggest that infants appreciate how people's visual experiences influence their emotions and use this information to regulate their own behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in reading with distraction: Sensory or inhibitory deficits?

Two experiments examined how sensory acuity affects age differences in susceptibility to interference in the reading-with-distraction task. In both experiments, older and younger adults read texts in an italic font and were required to ignore distractor words in an upright font. Experiment 1 examined whether the age-related increase in distractibility can be simulated in younger adults by reducing their visual acuity. Experiment 2 investigated whether the age differences in distractibility disappear if visual acuity is equated across all participants in both age groups. Both experiments showed that an impairment in visual acuity leads to increased interference in the reading-with-distraction task. However, older adults were much more impaired by the distractor material than younger adults with reduced visual acuity (Experiment 1). The age differences in the reading-with-distraction task persisted when visual acuity was equated between older and younger adults (Experiment 2). We conclude that the age-related increase in susceptibility to interference in the reading-with-distraction task is not solely due to perceptual deficits of older adults but arises from a deficit in higher cognitive processes such as inhibitory attention. Nevertheless, sensory acuity has to be taken into account as a potential confounding factor in perceptually demanding visual attention tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination learning during the first year: Stimulus and positional cues.

In four studies, 3-, 6-, and 9-month-old human infants were tested in a discrimination learning task in which visual fixation to a particular stimulus or lateral position was reinforced with an auditory stimulus. In Experiment 1, all age groups exhibited acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement of fixation to the reinforced target or position. Experiment 2 revealed that 3-month-olds retained the positional discrimination but not the stimulus discrimination after a 5-min delay between acquisition and extinction; older infants retained both types of discriminations. In Experiments 3 and 4 we investigated a possible developmental shift in the dominance of positional versus stimulus cues by training infants on displays in which stimulus and position were confounded and then by dissociating the cues on test trials. Results from both experiments indicated positional cue dominance for young infants and stimulus cue dominance for older infants. The findings are discussed in terms of differences in the attentional demands elicited by proprioceptive versus exteroceptive cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The significance of event information for 6- to 16-month-old infants' perception of containment.

Four experiments familiarized 6-, 9-, 12-, and 16-month-old infants to a solid block that was repeatedly lowered into a semitransparent container. In test trials the end state, containment, was either compatible or incompatible with the objects' size and position. In Experiment 1, infants saw the block and box successively before they observed the end state. This forced infants to attend to each object individually and memorize its size and position while observing the end state. In Experiments 2 and 3, the block and container were shown simultaneously, the block suspended above the container at a distance of either 25 cm (Experiment 2) or 2 cm (Experiment 3). The shorter distance made direct comparison easier to perform. In Experiment 4, the full event was shown in which the block was lowered inside the container from a distance of 25 cm. Infants' perception of containment was related to the visual information that was available. When the event made it easier to grasp the relevant information, infants could perceive whether the block could pass in the container at a progressively younger age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feedback processing and error correction.

In two experiments, college undergraduates completed a 20-frame instructional program and did or did not receive feedback following each frame response. In Experiment 1, feedback statements either had the words scrambled or were repeated twice. A control group received no feedback. Both feedback groups outperformed the controls on the 20-item criterion test, but subjects who received repeated feedback showed the greatest probability of correcting an instructional error. In Experiment 2, subjects received scrambled or unchanged feedback but were required to overtly unscramble or copy the postresponse statement. Again, a control group received no feedback. The feedback groups outperformed the control, and the overt response requirement yielded significantly higher error correction for the scrambled feedback group. These results supported a depth-of-processing view of feedback effectiveness, especially with respect to a metric of effort during encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive Activation in Visual Word Recognition: Constraints Imposed by the Joint Effects of Spatial Attention and Semantics.

Two lexical-decision experiments investigated the effects of semantic priming and stimulus intensity when target location varied and was cued by an abrupt onset. In Experiment 1, the spatial cue was a good predictor of target location, and in Experiment 2 it was not. The results indicate that word recognition processes were postponed until spatial attention was focused on the target and that whether attention further affected word recognition depended on cue validity. The joint effects of cue validity and priming interacted when cue validity was high but were additive when cue validity was low. The joint effects of stimulus intensity and semantic priming also varied according to cue validity (i.e., interactive when high and additive when low). The results are discussed in terms of their implications for visual word recognition, the distinction between exogenous and endogenous spatial attention, and how attention is affected by visual word recognition processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children associate novel words with complex objects rather than salient parts.

How do children learn associations between novel words and complex perceptual displays? Using a visual preference procedure, the authors tested 12- and 19-month-olds to see whether the infants would associate a novel word with a complex 2-part object or with either of that object's parts, both of which were potentially objects in their own right and 1 of which was highly salient to infants. At both ages, children's visual fixation times during test were greater to the entire complex object than to the salient part (Experiment 1) or to the less salient part (Experiment 2)--when the original label was requested. Looking times to the objects were equal if a new label was requested or if neutral audio was used during training (Experiment 3). Thus, from 12 months of age, infants associate words with whole objects, even those that could potentially be construed as 2 separate objects and even if 1 of the parts is salient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of Visuospatial Short-Term Memory in the Second Half of the 1st Year.

Eighty 5.5- to 12.5-month-old infants participated in 4 delayed-response procedures challenging shortterm visuospatial memory (STVM), 2 that varied the time between presentation and search and 2 that varied the number of locations. Within each type of challenge, 1 task required a gaze response and 1 required a reach response. There was little improvement in STVM performance from 5.5 to 8 months and linear improvement in the percentage correct from 8 to 12 months, with overall STVM performance accounting for 66% of the variance in age. Improvement in searching multiple locations lagged behind improvement in spanning longer delays. Memory scores did not vary for the visual and manual tasks. Perseveration was greatest for reach responses, increased with challenge, and decreased with age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants' ability to parse continuous actions.

In a series of 3 experiments, the authors examined 6- and 8-month-old infants' capacities to detect target actions in a continuous action sequence. In Experiment 1, infants were habituated to 2 different target actions and subsequently were presented with 2 continuous action sequences that either included or did not include the familiar target actions. Infants looked significantly longer at the sequences that were novel. Experiment 2 presented the habituation and test trials in the reverse order. The results showed that infants habituated to the sequence still showed reliable evidence of recognizing the target action during the test trials. Experiment 3 was comparable to Experiment 2, except it tested whether infants could detect a different event segment, namely the transitions between events. The results showed that infants did not discriminate between test trials suggesting that transitions between events are not as easy for infants to recognize. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The theta rhythm of the infant EEG and the development of the mechanisms of voluntary control of attention in the 2nd half of the first year of life

The neurophysiological basis of attention control was studied in infants at the second half-year of life, i.e. in the period when the capability for voluntary control over behavior fundamentally improves. EEG was recorded in 60 infants aed 8-11 months in three experimental conditions: 1) attention to an object in the visual field (externally controlled attention, or the baseline state), 2) anticipation of a person in the peek-a-boo game (internally controlled attention), 3) attention to the reappeared person in the peek-a-boo game (control condition). The spectral analysis of the EEG data revealed a sharp increase in the EEG theta (3.6-6.0 Hz) during internally controlled attention as compared to the baseline and control conditions. The theta1 (3.6-4.8 Hz) increase was maximal in the frontal derivations. The reactivity of the frontal theta1 during internally controlled attention discriminated infants with different abilities to maintain this type of attention. The reactivity of the theta2 (5.2-6.0 Hz) was maximal in the right temporal derivation (T6) and did not depend on stability of the anticipatory attention. The findings point to different functional significance of the theta1 and theta2 rhythms in infants. It is suggested that synchronization of the frontal theta1 rhythm in infants reflects the activity of the anterior attention system which realizes the executive attention control. The ability to maintain anticipatory attention increased with age, whereas the frontal theta1 synchronization decreased and totally disappeared at the age of 11 months. At the age of 8 months there was a positive correlation between the frontal theta1 synchronization and behavioral index of stability of the internally controlled attention. On the contrary, this correlation was negative at the age of 9 and 10 months. It is suggested that the age-dependent dynamics of the relationship between the frontal theta1 reactivity and attention reflects a leap in maturation of the anterior attention system resulting in its more economic and efficient functioning.     

Age-Related Differences in the Processing of Redundant Visual Dimensions.

Age differences in the redundant-signals effect and coactivation of visual dimensions were investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1 the task required the conjoining of dimensions, whereas in Experiment 2 the spatial separation of dimensions was manipulated. Although coactivation was evident for both age groups when the redundant dimensions occurred at the same location, older adults showed more evidence for coactivation, perhaps because of compensation for declines in perceptual processing. When the redundant dimensions were separated, neither age group showed evidence for coactivation. These findings indicate that the coactive processing of redundant visual dimensions is spared in healthy older adults and that for both groups, attention must be focused on both dimensions for coactivation to occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning to form a spatial category of tight-fit relations: How experience with a label can give a boost.

Two experiments explored the ability of 18-month-old infants to form an abstract categorical representation of tight-fit spatial relations in a visual habituation task. In Experiment 1, infants formed an abstract spatial category when hearing a familiar word (tight) during habituation but not when viewing the events in silence or when hearing a novel word. In Experiment 2, infants were given experience viewing and producing tight-fit relations while an experimenter labeled them with a novel word. Following this experience, infants formed the tight-fit spatial category in the visual habituation task, particularly when hearing the novel word again during habituation. Results suggest that even brief experience with a label and tight-fit relations can aid infants in forming an abstract categorical representation of tight-fit relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infant visual attentiveness in relation to birth condition.

28 preterm infants tested at 40 wks conceptional age showed significantly longer periods of attention to 2-dimensional stimuli than did 28 full-term infants of the same conceptional age (Exp I). To determine whether attentiveness of the full-term infants was diminished by transient birth effects, visual attentiveness was measured in a group of 15 full-term infants in the 1st 2 days of life and 2 wks later (Exp II). There was no significant increase in attention over this period. Furthermore, data from 62 additional preterm infants showed that fixation times were not significantly related to length of postnatal experience (Exp III). The only attention measure relating to birth condition was a measure of initial responsiveness. Healthier infants showed slightly longer first fixations on the first exposure of the stimulus. Initial responsiveness to visual stimuli may represent infant attentiveness more accurately than sustained attention to unchanging 2-dimensional stimuli. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants' perception of affordances of slopes under high- and low-friction conditions.

Three experiments investigated whether 14- and 15-month-old infants use information for both friction and slant for prospective control of locomotion down slopes. In Experiment 1, high- and low-friction conditions were interleaved on a range of shallow and steep slopes. In Experiment 2, friction conditions were blocked. In Experiment 3, the low-friction surface was visually distinct from the surrounding high-friction surface. In all three experiments, infants could walk down steeper slopes in the high-friction condition than they could in the low-friction condition. Infants detected affordances for walking down slopes in the high-friction condition, but in the low-friction condition, they attempted impossibly slippery slopes and fell repeatedly. In both friction conditions, when infants paused to explore slopes, they were less likely to attempt slopes beyond their ability. Exploration was elicited by visual information for slant (Experiments 1 and 2) or by a visually distinct surface that marked the change in friction (Experiment 3). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual experience influences 12-month-old infants' perception of goal-directed actions of others.

In the present study, we investigated whether infants' own visual experiences affected their perception of the visual status of others engaging in goal-directed actions. In Experiment 1, infants viewed video clips of successful and failed goal-directed actions performed by a blindfolded adult, with half the infants having previously experienced being blindfolded. The results showed that 12-month-old infants who were previously blindfolded preferred to look longer at the demonstrator's successful actions, whereas no such preference was observed in 8-month-old infants. In Experiment 2, infants watched the same 2 actions when the adult demonstrator was not blindfolded. The responses of 12-month-old infants were the opposite of those observed in Experiment 1: They showed a preference for the failed actions. These findings suggest that previous experience influenced the subsequent perception of others' goal-directed actions in the 12-month-old infants. We favor the interpretation that the preference for the successful actions in the 12-months-old infants provided with blindfolded experience demonstrates the influence of perceptual experience on considering the visual status of others engaging in goal-directed actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)