Visual Attention and Categorization in Infancy

分类使我们能够理解这个世界。发现婴儿是如何发展分类能力的，对于增进关于早期认知发展的科学知识非常重要。这个项目将分析分类在婴儿期中期到后期的快速发展。我们将使用多种测量方法来确定：(1)注意力在早期发展阶段对分类的影响，以及(2)婴儿时期参与分类的大脑区域。这项研究将阐明注意力如何影响婴儿的分类，并将使用神经成像来识别不同年龄婴儿参与分类的大脑区域。这一项目将产生更广泛的影响，因为它将深入了解关于终身分类的基本性质的长期辩论，并提供许多重要的培训机会。几名研究生和本科生将接受发展认知神经科学方面的培训，这将增加STEM领域中代表性不足的群体的参与。此外，研究小组将积极参与社区外联活动，以提高公众的科学素养和公众对科学的参与。该项目有三个主要目标，将在两个针对6个月、9个月和12个月大的婴儿的实验中得到解决。目的1是通过同时测量与注意力相关的心率变化和脑电(EEG)测量注意力和分类，来确定注意力对婴儿对面孔和物体分类的影响。目标2是通过改变婴儿在脑电测试前经历的学习条件，确定学习条件如何影响婴儿的注意力和分类。目标3是利用脑电数据的计算模型，确定婴儿期大脑中哪些区域参与分类。婴儿在注意过程中表现出参与分类的大脑活动增强，而只有拥有更高级分类技能的较大婴儿的前额叶皮质区域才参与分类。

Categorization allows us to make sense of the world. Discovering how infants develop the ability to categorize is important for advancing scientific knowledge about early cognitive development. This project will analyze the rapid development of categorization that occurs in mid- to late-infancy. Multiple measures will be used to determine: (1) the effects of attention on categorization in early development, and (2) areas of the brain involved in categorization in infancy. This research will illuminate how attention influences infant categorization and will use neuroimaging to identify areas of the brain involved in categorization at different ages in infancy. This project will have broader impacts by providing insight into long-standing debates about the basic nature of categorization throughout the life-span and by providing many important training opportunities. Several graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in developmental cognitive neuroscience, which will increase the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Additionally, the research team will actively engage in community outreach to increase public scientific literacy and public engagement with science. This project has three major aims that will be addressed in two experiments on 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. Aim 1 is to determine the effects of attention on infant categorization of faces and objects, using simultaneous measures of heart rate changes associated with attention and electroencephalogram (EEG) measures of attention and categorization. Aim 2 is to determine how learning conditions affect infant attention and categorization, by varying the learning conditions infants experience prior to EEG testing. Aim 3 is to determine which areas of the brain are involved in categorization in infancy, using computational modeling of EEG data. Infants are expected to show enhanced brain activity involved in categorization during attention, and areas of prefrontal cortex are expected to be involved in categorization only in older infants with more advanced categorization skills.