Temporal Stimulus Attributes Influence Infants' Attention to Visual Events and Locations

成熟的人类视觉系统擅长检测动态感觉事件，经常会自动将注意力转移到检测到的环境移动或变化上。关于婴幼儿视觉空间发育成熟的研究很多，如敏锐度和对各种静止模式的偏好等，但对婴幼儿视觉时间特性的研究较少。然而，婴儿从小就接触到了一个充满活力的感官世界。这项研究将考察婴儿对时间变化的视觉敏感度的发展。最初的目标是通过呈现两种以不同速度闪烁的模式来评估婴儿对闪光显示器的偏好。这项研究将使用婴儿观看每种图案的时间以及眼球运动和心率的生理测量来评估偏好，从而推断时间敏感度。进一步的研究将调查在视野外围出现的闪光或移动刺激的暗示效应。虽然婴儿在出生后不久就能粗略地定位光线和声音，但这些能力在婴儿期就变得非常精致。第三个目标是利用刺激变化的吸引注意力的性质来探测婴儿的注意力。问题是，视觉外围的突然变化会在多大程度上分散婴儿观看中央呈现的刺激的注意力。最初的活动将包括为不同年龄的婴儿选择合适的刺激，以及精确测量视觉注视变化的试点工作。这项研究将研究2到6个月大的婴儿，在这段时间里，视觉系统的时间敏锐度正在经历快速发育变化。这项研究将讨论视觉系统的发展，以及更多时间精细化的视觉处理对婴儿注意周围环境的影响。发现变化的能力成熟，确定变化的来源，并将注意力集中在感觉事件上，对于发展与环境中的人和物体互动的能力是必要的。

The mature human visual system, adept at detecting dynamic sensory events, often shifts attention automatically toward a detected movement or change in the environment. There are many studies of the maturation in infants of spatial aspects of vision, such as acuity and preferences for various stationary patterns, but fewer studies of the temporal characteristics of infant vision. Yet the infant, from an early age, encounters a dynamic sensory world. This research will examine the development of infants' visual sensitivity to temporal changes. The initial goal is to assess infant preferences for flashing displays by presenting two patterns flickering at different rates. The research will use measures of the time infants spend looking at each pattern, along with physiological measures of their eye movements and heart rate, to assess preferences and thus infer temporal sensitivity. Further studies will investigate the cueing effects of flashing or moving stimuli presented in the periphery of the visual field. Although infants can localize lights and sounds coarsely soon after birth, these abilities become greatly refined during early infancy. The third goal is to use the attention-attracting nature of stimulus change as a probe of infant attention. The question is how readily abrupt changes in the visual periphery will distract infants' viewing of centrally-presented stimuli. Initial activities will include selection of suitable stimuli for infants of different ages and pilot work on precise measurement of shifts in visual fixation. This research will study infants from 2 through 6 months of age, spanning the period during which temporal acuity in the visual system is undergoing rapid developmental change. The research will address both the development of the visual system and the implications of more temporally-refined visual processing for the infant's attention to their surroundings. Maturation of the ability to detect change, to localize the source of the change, and to focus attention to the sensory event is necessary for developing competence in interaction with persons and objects in the environment.