Variability in infant social responsiveness: Age and situational differences in attention-following

Abstract

Attention following (AF) is a cornerstone of social cognitive development and a longstanding topic of infancy research. However, there is conflicting evidence regarding the development of AF. One reason for discrepant findings could be that infants’ AF responses do not generalize across settings, and are influenced by situational factors. Theories of AF development based on data collected in laboratory paradigms might skew our understanding of infants' everyday AF. To reveal more generalizable patterns of infant AF development, we compared healthy, North American infants' (N = 48) AF developmental trajectories between a controlled laboratory paradigm and a naturalistic, home-based, parent-directed paradigm. Longitudinal micro-behavioral coding was analyzed to compare individual infants' AF between the two settings every month from 6 to 9 months of age. We aimed to (1) examine longitudinal development of infant AF in two settings; (2) compare AF development between settings, and (3) explore differences in adult cueing behaviors that influence AF. We found that longitudinal trajectories of AF differed between home and lab, with more AF at home in earlier months. Additionally, AF at home was related to maternal cueing variables including bid duration and frequency. These results have implications for the assessment of infants' developing social attention behaviors.