Infant visual attention in the paired-comparison paradigm: test-retest and attention-performance relations.
The visual behavior of infants in the paired-comparison paradigm was assessed with multiple discrimination tasks week-to-week at 4 and 7 months and longitudinally from 4 to 7 months. Results indicated that although task-to-task reliability was extremely variable and typically low, most measures of infants' attention averaged across multiple tasks were reliable from 1 week to the next as well as relatively stable over the longer longitudinal period. Across all groups, infants who had shorter fixations (i.e., more fixations per fixed-exposure period) during the familiarization phase showed higher novelty preferences. While infants' shift rate during test phases was a reliable individual characteristic at 7 months, it was not at 4 months; rather, data suggested that the difficulty of the stimulus discrimination may be related to young infants' shift rate.
Colombo
J
J
Department of Human Development, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045.
Mitchell
D W
DW
Horowitz
F D
FD
D001288:Attention; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008568:Memory; D002666:Psychology, Child; D014796:Visual Perception