The multimodal coordination of sustained attention: Its development and consequences for word learning in a social context

该奖项是国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学（SBE）博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）项目和SBE的学习与发展科学项目的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在印第安纳大学布卢明顿分校的琳达·b·史密斯的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金奖支持一位研究婴儿持续注意力发展的早期职业科学家。婴儿维持视觉注意力的能力是一项发展成就，体现了人类发展的复杂性，并预示着深远的发展结果，如自我控制、语言和以后的学业成绩。持续的注意力不仅仅是看。它是一种复杂的感觉-运动状态，包括持物、头部稳定和身体静止。这种多模态协调不是在真空中发生的。它内在地嵌入在与成熟伴侣的社会互动中并得到支持。社会互动支持婴儿持续视觉注意并影响其多模态协调的确切方式尚不清楚。本研究旨在建立一个统一的、机制的理解，以了解持续视觉注意的多模态是如何在与照顾者玩耍的背景下出现的，并对婴儿自身行为和照顾者行为的变化做出反应。这项计划中的研究使用了新颖的方法，如头戴式眼球追踪和内部制造的配备无线传感器的无线背心，以密集采样婴儿行为的多个组成部分：眼睛注视，身体运动，心率，呼吸频率。使用单一的数据收集程序，本研究将确定12至18个月大的幼儿持续视觉注意力的多模态组成部分，在这个年龄，持续注意力的个体差异出现并具有预测性后果。研究1将确定持续注意力的多模态组成部分，以及它们如何在没有成熟伴侣互动的情况下发展。研究2将确定孩子自己的持有行为是如何支持和组织这些组成部分的。研究3将利用婴儿和他们的照顾者一起玩物体的环境，来解决照顾者的行为和他们的内部状态如何组织婴儿的多模态注意力。研究4将回答照顾者和婴儿之间的协调质量是否对认知成就（如单词学习和语言结果）有实际影响。这些研究的结果将使我们对持续关注的多模态的使用、发展和后果的理解取得重大进展。拟议的项目与发展、认知和计算科学领域有关。此外，该提案利用了一种新型无线设备的发展来捕捉婴儿的运动、心率和呼吸。背心的原理图、制作说明和一套定制软件将免费提供给公众使用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and SBE's Science of Learning and Developmental Sciences programs. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Linda B. Smith at Indiana University, Bloomington, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the development of sustained attention in infants. An infant's ability to sustain their visual attention is a developmental achievement that exemplifies the complexity of human development and is predictive of far-reaching developmental outcomes such as self-control, language, and later school achievement. Sustained attention is more than just looking. It is a complex sensory-motor state that includes object holding, a stable head, and stillness of body. This multimodal coordination does not occur in a vacuum. It is inherently embedded in and supported by social interactions with a mature partner. The exact ways in which social interactions support infant sustained visual attention and impact its multimodal coordination is unknown. The proposed research aims to construct a unified, mechanistic understanding of how the multimodal state of sustained visual attention emerges in the context of play with a caregiver and responds to changes in both the infant's own behavior as well as the behavior of the caregiver.The planned study uses novel methodologies such as head-mounted eye-tracking and an in-house built wireless vest equipped with wireless sensors to densely sample multiple components of infant behavior: eye gaze, body movement, heart rate, respiratory rate. Using a single data-collecting procedure, the present research will identify the multimodal components of sustained visual attention in 12- to 18-month old toddlers, an age when individual differences in sustained attention emerge with predictive consequences. Study 1 will identify the multimodal components of sustained attention and how they develop in a context without the interaction of a mature partner. Study 2 will identify how the child's own holding behavior supports and organizes these components. Study 3 will leverage a context where infants and their caregivers play together with objects, to address how the behaviors of caregivers and their internal state organize the infant's multimodal attention. Study 4 will answer whether the quality of the coordination between caregivers and their infants have practical consequences for cognitive achievements such as word learning and language outcomes. Results from these studies will make significant advancements in our understanding of the use, development, and consequences of the multimodal state of sustained attention. The proposed project has relevance to the fields of Developmental, Cognitive, and the Computational Sciences. In addition, this proposal leverages the development of a novel, wireless device to capture infant movement, heart rate, and respiration. The schematics of the vest, instructions for its construction, and a suite of custom software will be made freely available for public use.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.