title: The image-scratch paradigm: a new paradigm for evaluating infants' motivated gaze control.
abstract: Human infants show spontaneous behaviours such as general movement, goal-directed behaviour, and self-motivated behaviour from a very early age. However, it is unclear how these behaviours are organised throughout development. A major hindrance to empirical investigation is that there is no common paradigm for all ages that can circumvent infants' underdeveloped verbal and motor abilities. Here, we propose a new paradigm, named the image-scratch task, using a gaze-contingent technique that is adaptable to various extents of motor ability. In this task, participants scratch off a black layer on a display to uncover pictures beneath it by using their gaze. We established quantitative criteria for spontaneous eye-movement based on adults' gaze-data and demonstrated that our task is useful for evaluating eye-movements motivated by outcome attractiveness in 8-month-olds. Finally, we discuss the potential of this paradigm for revealing the mechanisms and developmental transitions underlying infants' spontaneous and intentional behaviours.
authors: 1] Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University [2] School of Social Information Studies, Otsuma Women's University [3].
authors: Michiko
authors: M
authors: Miyazaki
authors: 1] Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University [2] Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University [3].
authors: Hideyuki
authors: H
authors: Takahashi
authors: Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University.
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Rolf
authors: Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University.
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Okada
authors: Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University.
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Omori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D002666:Psychology, Child