Attention is a fundamental component of effective perceptual processing and learning. The characteristics of how a baby looks at a visual stimulus when seeing it for the first time have been found to relate to how well she or he processes and remembers that stimulus. Interestingly, babies who demonstrate short looks towards a new stimulus are more likely to subsequently recognize that stimulus compared to infants who demonstrate long looks towards a new stimulus. Furthermore, shorter looking in infancy is associated with better cognitive functioning in early childhood compared to longer looking in infancy. Possible sources of variability in attention in early development remain unknown, and relatively little is known about the relationship between brain development and infant attention. This study examines the possibility that individual differences in infant visual attention are based on the development of brain systems involved in the voluntary control of eye movements. Short-looking infants may be advanced in the development of brain systems involved in the voluntary control of eye movements relative to long-looking infants. Looking behavior, eye movements, and brain activity will be measured while infants are presented with a series of visual patterns at 4 and 6 months of age. Differences between short- and long-looking infants' brain activity involved in the voluntary control of eye movements will be of particular interest.
Findings from this research will provide insight into the early development of attention, and the typical range of variability in attention for normally developing infants. This is particularly important given that certain characteristics of infant looking behavior have been found to be predictive of performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks in childhood. Furthermore, children at risk for developing cognitive deficits and children diagnosed with Down syndrome require longer inspection to process a visual stimulus compared to normal children. Identifying biological mechanisms, such as early brain development, associated with individual differences in infant attention can inform future development of early identification and intervention programs for children at risk for developmental disabilities. Attention is a fundamental component of the learning process. Understanding the basic aspects of attention in early development is a necessary first step to gaining a broader understanding of the role of attention in effective learning throughout the life span.
