Development of visual discrimination (pattern preference) in normal infants.
Visual discrimination for vertical stripes versus an unpatterned visual stimulus (plain grey) was studied longitudinally in 75 "normal" infants born at term, at monthly intervals from 1 to 6 months of age. Total fixation time was found to progressively decrease with increasing age, with a very sharp jump between the values of 2 and 3 months. Correspondingly, the mean duration of a single fixation decreased. The number of single fixations increased by age, doubling at 6 months in comparison to 1 month. A preferential fixation for stripes was already evident at the age of 1 month. A probabilistic method for assessing discrimination in individuals is proposed. The values will be correlated with follow-up results of cognitive development until school-age.
D000367:Age Factors; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D014796:Visual Perception