The Development of Selective Attention in Infancy and Early Childhood: Lessons from Video Distractors

注意力是学习和记忆的大门。它的基本组成部分（警觉，定向，聚焦，转移）在出生时并不成熟，在生命的最初几个月和几年中经历了显着的改善，可以在许多任务和行为中看到。这些改善与大脑结构和调节注意力的化学物质的成熟有关，也与早期经验有关。在婴儿期和幼儿期出现的一个重要的注意力功能是选择性。 选择性注意包括朝向一个特定的目标，保持警觉并专注于它，同时接受它的信息，并抵制其他竞争目标的分心。在媒体丰富的（例如，背景电视、音乐、电子游戏）大多数婴儿和儿童生活的环境中，这种竞争可能会很激烈，并且对学习和记忆的影响很大。 在拟议的研究计划中，我们将使用视频材料开始，以解决是否，如何，以及在什么情况下，这些媒体干扰（或促进）发展的注意力过程中提供的自然学习机会，发挥和社会互动。在对12- 60个月大婴儿的研究中，我们将研究：（分心或选择）儿童在游戏期间频繁观看视频;视频减少或增强集中的条件对玩具的（或投入的）注意力;电视是否具有独特的干扰物属性;与成人互动后视频干扰物对学习和记忆的影响;以及个体差异和经验在建立稳定的视频注意模式中的作用。结果将推进更广泛的文献发展的注意力，说明如何组件过程中培养幼儿的适应“多任务”，电子世界。这项工作将告知家长和专业人士，他们将基础科学转化为地方和国家的循证实践和政策，因为他们试图解决有关媒体对幼儿影响的相互矛盾的信息。该项目将为心理学、行为神经科学、儿科和教育领域的学生提供跨学科培训机会。

Attention is the gateway to learning and memory. Its basic components (alerting, orienting, focusing, shifting) are immature at birth and undergo significant improvement in the early months and years of life that can be seen in many tasks and behaviors. The improvements are related to maturation of the brain structures and chemicals that mediate attention and also to early experiences. An important attention function that emerges across infancy and early childhood is selectivity. Selective attention involves orienting toward a particular target, maintaining alertness and focus on it while taking in its information, and resisting the distraction from other competing targets. In the media-rich (e.g., background TV, music, video games) environment in which most infants and children live, this competition can be intense and the implications for learning and memory significant. In the proposed research program we will use video material to begin to address whether, how, and under what circumstances these media interfere with (or foster) developing attention processes during the natural learning opportunities afforded by play and social interactions. In studies with 12- 60-month-olds we will examine: the meaning (distraction or selection) of children's frequent looks to a video during play; the conditions under which video diminishes or enhances focused (or engaged) attention to toys; whether or not television has unique distractor properties; the effect of video distractors on learning and memory following an interaction with an adult; and the role of individual differences and experience in establishing stable patterns of attention to video. The results will advance the wider literature on the development of attention by illustrating how the component processes foster young children's adaptations in a "multi-tasking", electronic world. The work will inform parents and professionals who translate basic science into evidence-based practice and policy locally and nationally, as they try to resolve conflicting information about the impact of media on very young children. The program will provide interdisciplinary training opportunities for students in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, pediatrics, and education.