title: Attentional Predictors of 5-month-olds' Performance on a Looking A-not-B Task.
abstract: In the first year of life, the ability to search for hidden objects is an indicator of object permanence and, when multiple locations are involved, executive function (i.e. inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory). The current study was designed to examine attentional predictors of search in 5-month-old infants (as measured by the looking A-not-B task), and whether levels of maternal education moderated the effect of the predictors. Specifically, in a separate task, the infants were shown a unique puppet, and we measured the percentage of time attending to the puppet, as well as the length of the longest look (i.e., peak fixation) directed towards the puppet. Across the entire sample (N=390), the percentage of time attending to the puppet was positively related to performance on the visual A-not-B task. However, for infants whose mothers had not completed college, having a shorter peak looking time (after controlling for percentage of time) was also a predictor of visual A-not-B performance. The role of attention, peak fixation and maternal education in visual search is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, UNCG, Greensboro, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marcovitch
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Clearfield
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Swingler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, UNCG, Greensboro, NC, USA; Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Susan D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Calkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Martha Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bell
keywords: looking A-not-B; low maternal education; object permanence; peak fixation; sustained attention