title: Individual differences in the visual attention of human infants: further evidence for separate sensitization and habituation processes.
abstract: How many and what kinds of processes mediate infant visual attention? Are they influenced by stimulus "complexity?" Analyses were performed on visual fixation data from ninety 4-month-old infants; the time each infant spent looking at a black and white checkerboard pattern containing either 4 x 4, 12 x 12, or 20 x 20 checks per picture was measured for eight 10-s trials, with 10-s interstimulus intervals (Kaplan & Werner, 1986). Correlational and factor analyses revealed one significant source of individual variability (or factor) in the 4 x 4 data, and two significant sources in the 12 x 12 and 20 x 20 data. One factor gained strength over progressive trials and accounted for decreases in looking time. A second factor gained strength over the first few trials, then lost strength over the remaining trials, and accounted for initial increments in looking time. The two factors are consistent with a dual-process model of infant response dynamics; the first may represent habituation, a decremental process, and the second may represent sensitization, an incremental process that is activated by "complex" stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado-Boulder.
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Peterzell
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007223:Infant; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*