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

注意力是学习和记忆的门户。它的基本组成部分（警觉、定向、聚焦、移动）在出生时是不成熟的，在生命的最初几个月和几年里经历了显著的改善，这可以在许多任务和行为中看到。这种改善与调节注意力的大脑结构和化学物质的成熟有关，也与早期经历有关。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。选择性注意包括指向一个特定的目标，在获取信息的同时保持警觉和专注，并抵制来自其他竞争目标的注意力分散。在大多数婴儿和儿童生活的媒体丰富的环境中（例如，背景电视，音乐，电子游戏），这种竞争可能是激烈的，对学习和记忆的影响是显著的。在拟议的研究计划中，我们将使用视频材料开始解决这些媒体是否，如何以及在什么情况下干扰（或促进）在游戏和社会互动提供的自然学习机会中发展的注意力过程。在针对12- 60个月大婴儿的研究中，我们将研究：儿童在玩耍时频繁观看视频的意义（分心或选择）；视频减弱或增强对玩具的集中（或吸引）注意力的情况；电视是否具有独特的干扰特性；视频干扰对与成人互动后学习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。该研究结果将通过说明组成过程如何促进幼儿在“多任务”电子世界中的适应，推动有关注意力发展的更广泛的文献。这项工作将为父母和专业人士提供信息，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、儿科学和教育学的学生提供跨学科的培训机会。

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.