Temporal Stimulus Attributes Influence Infants' Attention to Visual Events and Locations

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The mature human visual system, adept at detecting dynamic sensory events, often shifts attention automatically toward a detected movement or change in the environment. There are many studies of the maturation in infants of spatial aspects of vision, such as acuity and preferences for various stationary patterns, but fewer studies of the temporal characteristics of infant vision. Yet the infant, from an early age, encounters a dynamic sensory world. This research will examine the development of infants' visual sensitivity to temporal changes. The initial goal is to assess infant preferences for flashing displays by presenting two patterns flickering at different rates. The research will use measures of the time infants spend looking at each pattern, along with physiological measures of their eye movements and heart rate, to assess preferences and thus infer temporal sensitivity. Further studies will investigate the cueing effects of flashing or moving stimuli presented in the periphery of the visual field. Although infants can localize lights and sounds coarsely soon after birth, these abilities become greatly refined during early infancy. The third goal is to use the attention-attracting nature of stimulus change as a probe of infant attention. The question is how readily abrupt changes in the visual periphery will distract infants' viewing of centrally-presented stimuli. Initial activities will include selection of suitable stimuli for infants of different ages and pilot work on precise measurement of shifts in visual fixation. This research will study infants from 2 through 6 months of age, spanning the period during which temporal acuity in the visual system is undergoing rapid developmental change. The research will address both the development of the visual system and the implications of more temporally-refined visual processing for the infant's attention to their surroundings. Maturation of the ability to detect change, to localize the source of the change, and to focus attention to the sensory event is necessary for developing competence in interaction with persons and objects in the environment.