title: The eyes have it: visual attention as an index of infant cognition.
abstract: The purpose of this article is to provide the pediatric nurse practitioner with an introduction to the literature on the use of visual-attention measures to screen for cognitive deficits in the infant. These measures rely on an infant's preference for novelty, that is, the tendency to look at a new stimulus rather than a stimulus the infant has already seen. Individual differences in novelty preference among infants are related to later intelligence. Novelty preference measures may be particularly useful as an adjunct to developmental assessment of infants with motor impairment, because these infants may not have the motor skills to perform tasks of traditional sensorimotor-based assessments.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Morrow
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D002666:Psychology, Child; D014785:Vision, Ocular