The cyclic organization of attention during habituation is related to infants' information processing

Abstract

We examined relations between one pattern of attention regulation-the cyclic organization of attention during information processing- and infants' processing speed and recognition memory. Twenty three-month-old and 20 six-month-old infants were assessed with an infant-control habituation procedure. Attentive states were coded frame-by-frame and subjected to time-series analysis. Processing speed was measured by infants' cumulative looking time to criterion and memory was indexed by responsiveness to novel stimulus following habituation. Infants whose attention was regulated in cyclic oscillations of attention and non-attention had shorter looking time and higher response to novelty. The relative proportion of transitory states and the number of cyclic peaks in the power spectra predicted processing speed but not memory. The relations between cyclicity and processing speed declined from 3 to 6 months. The regulation of attention in recurrent patterns is considered a correlate of efficient processing during the early stages of perceptual development.