The Development of Selective Attention in Infancy as Measured by Eye Movements

描述（由申请人提供）：对所有年龄段都至关重要的一个问题是如何选择性地过滤环境中过多的信息，以进行连贯的信息处理。这个问题的答案对于认知的发展、认知的效率和认知的行为表现至关重要。要回答这个问题，我们要依靠选择性注意的概念，它被描述为一个过程，在这个过程中，大脑从众多可能的对象中抓住一个，而忽略其他对象。选择性注意机制很重要，因为处理资源是有限的，使得同时处理视觉世界中的大量信息变得困难。对于不断受到大量新信息冲击的婴儿来说，他们的处理资源比成年人效率更低，也更有限，因此，能够有选择地参与似乎对他们构建一个有组织的、详细的世界表征至关重要。这一点得到了以下事实的支持：某些发育性残疾，如注意力缺陷障碍和自闭症，其特征是选择性分配注意力的能力不足。因此，建议研究开始，以解决我们的理解的差距，选择性注意机制的发展，系统地调查与眼动反应时间的措施，更适合于评估的选择机制，更类似的方式，其中成人的选择性注意机制通常测量。此外，通过测量眼动，婴儿和成人都可以在相同的范式中进行测试，收集相同的定性数据，从而能够更直接地比较婴儿和成人的选择性注意机制及其发育特征。在成年人中，已经研究了许多不同的注意选择性机制，特别是前注意机制与注意机制，从其他潜在目标中选择目标的机制，以及抑制非选择信息处理（即忽略）的机制。这些机制在发育研究中没有得到太多或任何关注。因此，拟议的研究将集中在三种选择性注意机制上，预计婴儿表现这些机制的实质与成人没有什么不同，但婴儿的处理速度将相对于成人较慢。这项拟议中的研究有可能首次回答一些长期存在的关于婴儿理解世界能力的问题。在未来，拟议中的研究还将使人们能够更好地了解当婴儿和儿童难以理解他们的世界时，发育中出现了什么问题。了解这些机制对于了解大脑发育和潜在的发育障碍（如注意力缺陷障碍和自闭症）至关重要。 公共卫生相关性：认知发展的一个根本问题是，认知资源有限的婴儿如何能够有选择地过滤环境中过多的信息，以便对他们的世界进行连贯的学习。因此，本研究的具体目标是开始通过使用评估婴儿眼球运动的新方法来描绘早期发育中选择性注意的机制。这项研究也有可能使人们更好地了解当婴儿和儿童在选择性过滤他们世界中的信息时，注意力发展中出现了什么问题，例如注意力缺陷障碍和自闭症。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A question of fundamental importance for all ages is how the overabundance of information in the environment is selectively filtered to allow for coherent information processing. The answer is central to the development of cognition, its efficiency and its behavioral manifestation. To answer this, we rely on the construct of selective attention, described as the process in which the mind takes hold of one out of a multitude of possible objects while ignoring the others. Selective attention mechanisms are important because processing resources are limited making processing the immense amount of information in the visual world all at once difficult. For the infant, who is constantly assailed by a multitude of new information and whose processing resources are less efficient and more limited than adults, being capable of selectively attending would seem to be crucial to constructing an organized and detailed representation of their world. This is supported by the fact that certain developmental disabilities, such as Attention Deficit Disorder and Autism, are characterized by deficits in the ability to selectively allocate attention. Research is therefore proposed to begin to address the gaps in our understanding of the development of selective attention mechanisms by systematically investigating with an eye movement reaction time measure that is more appropriate for evaluating the selection mechanisms and more similar to the manner in which adults' selective attention mechanisms are typically measured. Moreover, by measuring eye movements, both infants and adults can be tested in the same paradigm with the collection of the same qualitative data, enabling a more direct comparison between the selective attention mechanisms of infants and adults and their developmental characteristics. In adults, a number of different mechanisms of attentional selectivity have been investigated, in particular, preattentive versus attentive mechanisms, mechanisms for selecting a target from among other potential targets, and mechanisms of inhibiting processing (i.e. ignoring) of non-selected information. None of these mechanisms have received much or any focus in developmental research. The proposed research will therefore focus on the three selective attention mechanisms and it is expected that the substance of infants' manifestation of these mechanisms will not be different than adults but that the infants' processing will be slowed relative to adults. The proposed research has the potential to, for the first time, answer some long-standing questions about the nature of infants' ability to make sense of their worlds. In the future, the proposed research will also enable a better understanding of what goes wrong in development when infants and children have trouble making sense of their worlds. Understanding these mechanisms is critical to getting a handle on brain development and potential developmental disabilities such as Attention Deficit Disorder and Autism. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: A question of fundamental importance for cognitive development is how infants, with limited cognitive resources, are able to selectively filter the overabundance of information in their environment to allow for coherent learning about their world. The particular objective of this research proposal, therefore, is to begin to delineate the mechanisms of selective attention in early development by use of a new methodology of assessing infants' eye movements. The proposed research also has the potential to enable a better understanding of what goes wrong in attentional development when infants and children have trouble selectively filtering the information in their worlds, such as in Attention Deficit Disorder and Autism.