Abstract
Little research hitherto has examined how individual differences in attention, as assessed using standard experimental paradigms, relate to individual differences in how attention is spontaneously allocated in more naturalistic contexts. Here, we analyzed the time intervals between refoveating eye movements (fixation durations) while typically developing 11-month-old infants viewed a 90-min battery ranging from complex dynamic to noncomplex static materials. The same infants also completed experimental assessments of cognitive control, psychomotor reaction times (RT), processing speed (indexed via peak look during habituation), and arousal (indexed via tonic pupil size). High test–retest reliability was found for fixation duration, across testing sessions and across types of viewing material. Increased cognitive control and increased arousal were associated with reduced variability in fixation duration. For fixations to dynamic stimuli, in which a large proportion of saccades may be exogenously cued, we found that psychomotor RT measures were most predictive of mean fixation duration; for fixations to static stimuli, in contrast, in which there is less exogenous attentional capture, we found that psychomotor RT did not predict performance, but that measures of cognitive control and arousal did. The implications of these findings for understanding the development of attentional control in naturalistic settings are discussed.
Highlights
Previous research has used standardized experimental assessments to study how individual differences in attention manifest during infancy (Colombo & Mitchell, 2009; Courage, Reynolds, & Richards, 2006; DiLalla et al, 1990; Rose, Feldman, & Jankowski, 2002, 2009; Rose, Feldman, Jankowski, & Van Rossem, 2011a; Rose, Feldman, & Jankowski, 2012)
For fixations to dynamic stimuli, in which a large proportion of saccades may be exogenously cued, we found that psychomotor reaction time (RT) measures were most predictive of mean fixation duration; for fixations to static stimuli, in contrast, in which there is Correspondence should be sent to Sam V
Individual differences in attention during infancy, as assessed using habituation and reaction time (RT) paradigms, have been shown to relate to long-term outcomes on language and executive function measures (Rose et al, 2009, 2012)— but are these relationships observed because early attentional control leads to better orienting and learning behaviors in naturalistic contexts? Or are they observed because these experimental assessments tap some underlying “pure” aspect of cognition that is independent of naturalistic orienting? This question, which is relatively underaddressed in the literature, is the focus of the present article
Summary
Previous research has used standardized experimental assessments to study how individual differences in attention manifest during infancy (Colombo & Mitchell, 2009; Courage, Reynolds, & Richards, 2006; DiLalla et al, 1990; Rose, Feldman, & Jankowski, 2002, 2009; Rose, Feldman, Jankowski, & Van Rossem, 2011a; Rose, Feldman, & Jankowski, 2012). Little research, has studied how individual differences on these experimental assessments relate to individual differences in how attention is spontaneously allocated in naturalistic settings. This leaves a number of important questions unanswered. Individual differences in attention during infancy, as assessed using habituation and reaction time (RT) paradigms, have been shown to relate to long-term outcomes on language and executive function measures (Rose et al, 2009, 2012)— but are these relationships observed because early attentional control leads to better (more efficient) orienting and learning behaviors in naturalistic contexts (see e.g., Samuelson, Smith, Perry, & Spencer, 2011; Yu & Smith, 2011a,b)? The present article concerns the microdynamics of spontaneous attention, namely the duration of fixations (typically in the order of hundreds of milliseconds) during unconstrained orienting to naturalistic scenes
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