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Diaz A, Bell MA. Information processing efficiency and regulation at five months. Infant Behav Dev 2011; 34:239-47. [PMID: 21269705 PMCID: PMC3099147 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2010.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2009] [Revised: 07/17/2010] [Accepted: 12/20/2010] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Infants with short look durations are generally thought to have better attentional capabilities due to their efficient information processing. Although effortful attention is considered a key component of developing regulatory abilities, little is known about the relation between speed and efficiency of processing and self-regulation. In this study, 5-month-old infants with shorter look duration had greater EEG power values than infants with longer look duration during baseline, as well as during a distressing task and a post-distress attentional processing task. These short looking infants also demonstrated higher heart rate, relative to long looking infants, during post-distress information processing. Behaviorally the two groups differed in the amount of distraction during distress. These data provide evidence for an association between the efficiency of information processing and beginning regulatory abilities in early infancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anjolii Diaz
- Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0436, United States.
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52
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Ross-Sheehy S, Oakes LM, Luck SJ. Exogenous attention influences visual short-term memory in infants. Dev Sci 2010; 14:490-501. [PMID: 21477189 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00992.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Two experiments examined the hypothesis that developing visual attentional mechanisms influence infants' Visual Short-Term Memory (VSTM) in the context of multiple items. Five- and 10-month-old infants (N = 76) received a change detection task in which arrays of three differently colored squares appeared and disappeared. On each trial one square changed color and one square was cued; sometimes the cued item was the changing item, and sometimes the changing item was not the cued item. Ten-month-old infants exhibited enhanced memory for the cued item when the cue was a spatial pre-cue (Experiment 1) and 5-month-old infants exhibited enhanced memory for the cued item when the cue was relative motion (Experiment 2). These results demonstrate for the first time that infants younger than 6 months can encode information in VSTM about individual items in multiple-object arrays, and that attention-directing cues influence both perceptual and VSTM encoding of stimuli in infants as in adults.
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53
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Bahrick LE, Lickliter R, Castellanos I, Vaillant-Molina M. Increasing task difficulty enhances effects of intersensory redundancy: testing a new prediction of the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis. Dev Sci 2010; 13:731-7. [PMID: 20712739 PMCID: PMC2931424 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00928.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Prior research has demonstrated intersensory facilitation for perception of amodal properties of events such as tempo and rhythm in early development, supporting predictions of the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis (IRH). Specifically, infants discriminate amodal properties in bimodal, redundant stimulation but not in unimodal, nonredundant stimulation in early development, whereas later in development infants can detect amodal properties in both redundant and nonredundant stimulation. The present study tested a new prediction of the IRH: that effects of intersensory redundancy on attention and perceptual processing are most apparent in tasks of high difficulty relative to the skills of the perceiver. We assessed whether by increasing task difficulty, older infants would revert to patterns of intersensory facilitation shown by younger infants. Results confirmed our prediction and demonstrated that in difficult tempo discrimination tasks, 5-month-olds perform like 3-month-olds, showing intersensory facilitation for tempo discrimination. In contrast, in tasks of low and moderate difficulty, 5-month-olds discriminate tempo changes in both redundant audiovisual and nonredundant unimodal visual stimulation. These findings indicate that intersensory facilitation is most apparent for tasks of relatively high difficulty and may therefore persist across the lifespan.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorraine E Bahrick
- Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
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54
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Colombo J, Shaddy DJ, Anderson CJ, Gibson LJ, Blaga OM, Kannass KN. What Habituates in Infant Visual Habituation? A Psychophysiological Analysis. INFANCY 2010; 15:107-124. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2009.00012.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Colombo J, Mitchell DW. Infant visual habituation. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2009; 92:225-34. [PMID: 18620070 PMCID: PMC2758574 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2008.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 142] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2008] [Revised: 06/02/2008] [Accepted: 06/17/2008] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The use of visual habituation in the study of infant cognition and learning is reviewed. This article traces the history of the technique, underlying theory, and procedural variation in its measurement. In addition, we review empirical findings with respect to the cognitive processes that presumably contribute to habituation, studies of developmental course and long-term prediction, as well as recent attempts to address or explain the phenomenon of visual habituation through the use of mathematical or quantitative models. The review ends with an appeal for a return to the study of habituation per se as a valid measure of infant learning, rather than relegating the phenomenon to its use as a technique for familiarizing infants in procedures testing for discrimination or recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Colombo
- Department of Psychology and Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, University of Kansas, 1415 Jayhawk Boulevard, 426 Fraser Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
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56
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Peltola MJ, Leppänen JM, Vogel-Farley VK, Hietanen JK, Nelson CA. Fearful faces but not fearful eyes alone delay attention disengagement in 7-month-old infants. Emotion 2009; 9:560-5. [PMID: 19653780 PMCID: PMC2954105 DOI: 10.1037/a0015806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Adult-like attentional biases toward fearful faces can be observed in 7-month-old infants. It is possible, however, that infants merely allocate attention to simple features such as enlarged fearful eyes. In the present study, 7-month-old infants (n = 15) were first shown individual emotional faces to determine their visual scanning patterns of the expressions. Second, an overlap task was used to examine the latency of attention disengagement from centrally presented faces. In both tasks, the stimuli were fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions, and a neutral face with fearful eyes. Eye-tracking data from the first task showed that infants scanned the eyes more than other regions of the face; however, there were no differences in scanning patterns across expressions. In the overlap task, infants were slower in disengaging attention from fearful as compared to happy and neutral faces and also to neutral faces with fearful eyes. Together, these results provide evidence that threat-related stimuli tend to hold attention preferentially in 7-month-old infants and that the effect does not reflect a simple response to differentially salient eyes in fearful faces.
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57
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Thompson LA, Trevathan WR. Cortisol Reactivity, Maternal Sensitivity, and Infant Preference for Mother's Familiar Face and Rhyme in 6-Month-Old Infants. J Reprod Infant Psychol 2009; 27:143-167. [PMID: 20046939 DOI: 10.1080/02646830801918463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated how cortisol (stress) reactivity and mothers' behavioral sensitivity affect familiarity preferences in 6-month-old infants. Relations between sensitivity and stress were explored using saliva samples taken from mothers and infants before, and 20-min after, two preferential looking experiments. Photographs and voice recordings from infants' mothers were incorporated into standard visual preference tasks. Sensitivity was assessed by determining the degree of behavioral synchrony between mother and infant from a 10-min interaction period preceding the preferential looking experiments. Results showed that decreasing infant cortisol reactivity and greater maternal sensitivity were associated with familiarity preferences for mother's face stimuli. For the experiment with voice stimuli, a sex difference was obtained in the relationship between the directionality of cortisol reactivity and familiarity preferences. Results are related to a parallel study with 3-month-old infants (Thompson & Trevathan, 2008), and issues are discussed in terms of infants' developing emotional independence from mother.
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58
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Elsabbagh M, Volein A, Holmboe K, Tucker L, Csibra G, Baron-Cohen S, Bolton P, Charman T, Baird G, Johnson MH. Visual orienting in the early broader autism phenotype: disengagement and facilitation. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2009; 50:637-42. [PMID: 19298466 PMCID: PMC3272379 DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.02051.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 157] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent studies of infant siblings of children diagnosed with autism have allowed for a prospective approach to examine the emergence of symptoms and revealed behavioral differences in the broader autism phenotype within the early years. In the current study we focused on a set of functions associated with visual attention, previously reported to be atypical in autism. METHOD We compared performance of a group of 9-10-month-old infant siblings of children with autism to a control group with no family history of autism on the 'gap-overlap task', which measures the cost of disengaging from a central stimulus in order to fixate a peripheral one. Two measures were derived on the basis of infants' saccadic reaction times. The first is the Disengagement effect, which measures the efficiency of disengaging from a central stimulus to orient to a peripheral one. The second was a Facilitation effect, which arises when the infant is cued by a temporal gap preceding the onset of the peripheral stimulus, and would orient faster after its onset. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Infant siblings of children with autism showed longer Disengagement latencies as well as less Facilitation relative to the control group. The findings are discussed in relation to how differences in visual attention may relate to characteristics observed in autism and the broader phenotype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mayada Elsabbagh
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
| | - Agnes Volein
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
| | - Karla Holmboe
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
| | - Leslie Tucker
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
| | - Gergely Csibra
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
| | | | | | | | | | - Mark H. Johnson
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
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Abstract
A controversial issue in the field of language development is whether language emergence and growth is dependent solely on processes specifically tied to language or could also depend on basic cognitive processes that affect all aspects of cognitive competence (domain-general processes). The present article examines this issue using a large battery of infant information-processing measures of memory, representational competence, processing speed, and attention, many of which have been shown to predict general cognition in a cohort of full-terms and preterms. Results showed that various aspects of infant memory and representational competence (a) related to language at both 12 and 36 months, (b) predicted similarly for the two groups, and (c) predicted 36-month language, independently of birth status, 12-month language, and the 12-month Bayley Mental Development Index. Additionally, the results established predictive validity for the MacArthur 12-month language measure. These findings support a domain-general view of language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan A Rose
- Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, NY, USA.
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60
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Domsch H, Lohaus A, Thomas H. Influences of information processing and disengagement in infants' looking behaviour. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2009. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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61
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Blaga OM, Shaddy DJ, Anderson CJ, Kannass KN, Little TD, Colombo J. Structure and Continuity of Intellectual Development in Early Childhood. INTELLIGENCE 2009; 37:106-113. [PMID: 20046219 PMCID: PMC2631272 DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2008.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
We evaluated over 200 participants semiannually from 12 to 48 months of age on measures of intellectual (Bayley Scales, Stanford-Binet Scale) and verbal (MacArthur-Bates Inventory, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) status. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear (growth curve) analyses were applied to address the nature of development and individual differences during this time. Structural analyses showed a strong and robust simplex model from infancy to the preschool period, with no evidence of qualitative reorganizations or discontinuities. Growth-curve modeling revealed significant associations between level factors across the early and later measures of cognition, providing further evidence of continuity; the growth trajectory from the Bayley through 24 months predicted growth in a nonverbal factor, but not in a verbal factor. Altogether, the findings reveal continuous and stable development in intellectual function from late infancy through the preschool years. Additionally, the high level of continuity demonstrated across these ages was observed to be largely independent of growth in vocabulary.
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62
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Rose SA, Feldman JF, Jankowski JJ, Van Rossem R. A Cognitive Cascade in Infancy: Pathways from Prematurity to Later Mental Development. INTELLIGENCE 2008; 36:367-378. [PMID: 19122757 PMCID: PMC2504323 DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2007.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Using data from a longitudinal study of preterms and full-terms, the present study examined the structure of infant cognition at 12 months, the extent to which five 12-month abilities (attention, speed, recognition, recall, and representational competence) mediated the relation from prematurity to mental development at 2 - 3 years, and how continuity and change in infant information processing from 7 to 12 months affected later outcome. The results indicated that 12-month measures of infant information processing completely mediated the effect of prematurity on outcome and the infant measures form a 'cognitive cascade,' similar to that seen at 7 months, in which the two more elementary abilities (attention and speed) influenced the more complex ones, which in turn influenced later cognition. Additionally, despite cross-age stability, 7- month assessments contribute to outcome independently of their 12-month counterparts, suggesting that infant abilities undergo important developmental transformations in the second half of the first year of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan A. Rose
- Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
| | - Judith F. Feldman
- Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
| | - Jeffery J. Jankowski
- Department of Social Sciences, Queensborough Community College/CUNY and Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
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63
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Peltola MJ, Leppänen JM, Palokangas T, Hietanen JK. Fearful faces modulate looking duration and attention disengagement in 7-month-old infants. Dev Sci 2008; 11:60-8. [PMID: 18171368 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00659.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 112] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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64
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Judge MP, Harel O, Lammi-Keefe CJ. Maternal consumption of a docosahexaenoic acid-containing functional food during pregnancy: benefit for infant performance on problem-solving but not on recognition memory tasks at age 9 mo. Am J Clin Nutr 2007; 85:1572-7. [PMID: 17556695 DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/85.6.1572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 150] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND There are few studies reporting on docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) supplementation during pregnancy and infant cognitive function. DHA supplementation in pregnancy and infant problem solving in the first year have not been investigated. OBJECTIVE We tested the hypothesis that infants born to women who consumed a DHA-containing functional food during pregnancy would demonstrate better problem-solving abilities and recognition memory than would infants born to women who consumed the placebo during pregnancy. DESIGN In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial, pregnant women consumed a DHA-containing functional food or a placebo from gestation week 24 until delivery. Study groups received DHA-containing cereal-based bars (300 mg DHA/92-kcal bar; average consumption: 5 bars/wk; n = 14) or cereal-based placebo bars (n = 15). The Infant Planning Test and Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence were administered to infants at age 9 mo. The problem-solving trial included a support step and a search step. The procedure was scored on the basis of the infant's performance on each step and on the entire problem (intention score and total intentional solutions). Scores were generated on the basis of the cumulative performance of the infant on 5 trials. RESULTS Treatment had significant effects on the performance of problem-solving tasks: total intention score (P = 0.017), total intentional solutions (P = 0.011), and number of intentional solutions on both cloth (P = 0.008) and cover (P = 0.004) steps. There were no significant differences between groups in any measure of Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence. CONCLUSION These data point to a benefit for problem solving but not for recognition memory at age 9 mo in infants of mothers who consumed a DHA-containing functional food during pregnancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle P Judge
- Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
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65
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Millar WS, Weir CG. Heart rate reactivity during contingency learning in 5- to 10-month-old at-risk and non-risk babies. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2007. [DOI: 10.1348/026151006x107218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
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66
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Hunnius S. The early development of visual attention and its implications for social and cognitive development. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2007; 164:187-209. [PMID: 17920432 DOI: 10.1016/s0079-6123(07)64010-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Looking behavior plays a crucial role in the daily life of an infant and forms the basis for cognitive and social development. The infant's visual attentional systems undergo rapid development during the first few months of life. During the last decennia, the study of visual attentional development in infants has received increasing interest. Several reliable measures to investigate the early development of attentional processes have been developed, and currently a number of new methods are giving fresh impetus to the field. Research on overt and covert as well as exogenously and endogenously controlled attention shifts is presented. The development of gaze shifts to peripheral targets, covert attention, and visual scanning behavior is treated. Whereas most attentional mechanisms in very young infants are thought to be mediated mainly by subcortical structures, cortical mechanisms become increasingly more functional throughout the first months. Different accounts of the neurophysiological underpinnings of attentional processes and their developmental changes are discussed. Finally, a number of studies investigating the implications of attentional development for early cognitive and social development are presented.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Hunnius
- Department of Pediatric and Developmental Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
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67
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Colombo J, Cheatham CL. The emergence and basis of endogenous attention in infancy and early childhood. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2006; 34:283-322. [PMID: 17120808 DOI: 10.1016/s0065-2407(06)80010-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 108] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- John Colombo
- Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
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68
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Abstract
Much of what psychologists know about infant perception and cognition is based on habituation, but the process itself is still poorly understood. Here the authors offer a dynamic field model of infant visual habituation, which simulates the known features of habituation, including familiarity and novelty effects, stimulus intensity effects, and age and individual differences. The model is based on a general class of dynamic (time-based) models that integrate environmental input in varying metric dimensions to reach a single decision. Here the authors provide simulated visual input of varying strengths, distances, and durations to 2 coupled and interacting fields. The 1st represents the activation that drives "looking," and the 2nd, the inhibition that leads to "looking away," or habituation. By varying the parameters of the field, the authors simulate the time course of habituation trials and show how these dynamics can lead to different depths of habituation, which then determine how the system dishabituates. The authors use the model to simulate a set of influential experiments by R. Baillargeon (1986, 1987a, 1987b) using the well-known "drawbridge" paradigm. The dynamic field model provides a coherent explanation without invoking infant object knowledge. The authors show that small changes in model parameters can lead to qualitatively different outcomes. Because in typical infant cognition experiments, critical parameters are unknown, effects attributed to conceptual knowledge may be explained by the dynamics of habituation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregor Schöner
- Institut fur Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum 44780, Germany.
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69
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Courage ML, Reynolds GD, Richards JE. Infants' attention to patterned stimuli: developmental change from 3 to 12 months of age. Child Dev 2006; 77:680-95. [PMID: 16686795 PMCID: PMC1463994 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00897.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 159] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
To examine the development of look duration as a function of age and stimulus type, 14- to 52-week-old infants were shown static and dynamic versions of faces, Sesame Street material, and achromatic patterns for 20 s of accumulated looking. Heart rate was recorded during looking and parsed into stimulus orienting, sustained attention, and attention termination phases. Infants' peak look durations indicated that prior to 26 weeks there was a linear decrease with age for all stimuli. Older infants' look durations continued to decline for patterns but increased for Sesame Street and faces. Measures of heart rate change during sustained attention and the proportion of time spent in each phase of attention confirmed infants' greater engagement with the more complex stimuli.
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70
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Hunnius S, Geuze RH, van Geert P. Associations between the developmental trajectories of visual scanning and disengagement of attention in infants. Infant Behav Dev 2006; 29:108-25. [PMID: 17138266 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2005.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2004] [Revised: 08/03/2005] [Accepted: 08/05/2005] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The relation between the developmental trajectories of visual scanning and disengagement of attention and gaze were examined throughout early infancy. A sample of 10 infants carried out a scanning and a disengagement task with the same visual stimuli six times between 6 and 26 weeks of age. Frequency and latency measures were analyzed using multivariate multilevel models and Monte Carlo analyses. The results suggest that the ability to scan a face or an abstract stimulus evolves slightly earlier than the ability to shift gaze to a newly appeared target in the periphery. This is consistent with the account that the parvocellular stream becomes functional slightly before the magnocellular stream. The study revealed no indications of a positive association between the development of scanning and disengagement on the level of the individual infant. Scanning and disengagement change scores contrasted more with one another than could be expected on the basis of chance. This implies that the magnocellular and the parvocellular stream develop rather independently up to the age of 26 weeks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Hunnius
- Department of Developmental and Clinical Neuropsychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
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71
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McConnell BA, Bryson SE. Visual attention and temperament: Developmental data from the first 6 months of life. Infant Behav Dev 2005. [DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2005.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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72
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Dannemiller JL. Evidence against a maximum response model of exogenous visual orienting during early infancy and support for a dimensional switching model. Dev Sci 2005; 8:567-82. [PMID: 16246248 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00448.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Very young infants orient overtly with eye and head movements to salient events in their visual environments, but those events rarely occur in the absence of competing visual stimuli. Two different models of how this kind of orienting is related to number and distribution of elements in the stimulus field were tested with infants across the age range from 2 to 5 months in four experiments. A set size manipulation in Experiments 1-3 produced data that were mostly inconsistent with the Maximum Response model proposed by Dannemiller (1998), especially at ages over 3 months. Experiment 4 produced data from 3.5-month-olds that were consistent with an alternative Dimensional Switching model that assumed that there was switching across trials in the stimulus dimension that drove orienting. This Dimensional Switching model can explain the small to nonexistent set size effects observed in the first three experiments as well as data from previous experiments using this paradigm. Factors that could produce this kind of dimensional switching over time were considered and other implications of this model for understanding the development of overt visual orienting were discussed.
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73
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Rose SA, Feldman JF, Jankowski JJ, Rossem R. Pathways From Prematurity and Infant Abilities to Later Cognition. Child Dev 2005. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00842.x-i1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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74
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Colombo J, Kannass KN, Shaddy DJ, Kundurthi S, Maikranz JM, Anderson CJ, Blaga OM, Carlson SE. Maternal DHA and the development of attention in infancy and toddlerhood. Child Dev 2004; 75:1254-67. [PMID: 15260876 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00737.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 209] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Infants were followed longitudinally to document the relationship between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels and the development of attention. Erythrocyte (red-blood cell; RBC) phospholipid DHA (percentage of total fatty acids) was measured from infants and mothers at delivery. Infants were assessed in infant-control habituation at 4, 6, and 8 months augmented with psychophysiological measures, and on free-play attention and distractibility paradigms at 12 and 18 months. Infants whose mothers had high DHA at birth showed an accelerated decline in looking over the 1st year and increases in examining during single-object exploration and less distractibility in the 2nd year. These findings are consistent with evidence suggesting a link between DHA and cognitive development in infancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Colombo
- Department of Psychology and The Schiefelbusch Institute for Lifespan Studies, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045, USA.
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75
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Kavšek M. Predicting later IQ from infant visual habituation and dishabituation: A meta-analysis. JOURNAL OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2004. [DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2004.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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76
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Fisher-Thompson D, Peterson JA. Infant Side Biases and Familiarity-Novelty Preferences During a Serial Paired-Comparison Task. INFANCY 2004. [DOI: 10.1207/s15327078in0503_4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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77
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78
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79
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Colombo J, Shaddy DJ, Richman WA, Maikranz JM, Blaga OM. The Developmental Course of Habituation in Infancy and Preschool Outcome. INFANCY 2004. [DOI: 10.1207/s15327078in0501_1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 123] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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80
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Abstract
This article provides an overview of some innovative ways of examining infant cognition, highlighting several procedures that are likely to prove useful for assessing the effects of interventions in the first year of life. The procedures singled out assess three aspects of cognition in infancy: visual recognition memory, attention, and speed of processing. Assessments of each, while primarily experimental in nature, show strong developmental change over the first year, as well as modest stability, discriminant validity, and predictive validity. The emerging evidence suggests that these three aspects of infant cognition are among the most basic building blocks of mature cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan A Rose
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, New York, USA
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81
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Abelkop BS, Frick JE. Cross-Task Stability in Infant Attention: New Perspectives Using the Still-Face Procedure. INFANCY 2003. [DOI: 10.1207/s15327078in0404_09] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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82
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Rose SA, Feldman JF, Jankowski JJ. Infant visual recognition memory: independent contributions of speed and attention. Dev Psychol 2003; 39:563-71. [PMID: 12760523 DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.39.3.563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Relations between infant visual recognition memory and later cognition have fueled interest in identifying the underlying cognitive components of this important infant ability. The present large-scale study examined three promising factors in this regard--processing speed, short-term memory capacity, and attention. Two of these factors, attention and processing speed (but, surprisingly, not short-term memory capacity), were related to visual recognition memory: Infants who showed better attention (shorter looks and more shifts) and faster processing had better recognition memory. The contributions of attention and processing speed were independent of one another and were similar at all ages studied--5, 7, and 12 months. Taken together, attention and speed accounted for 6%-9% of the variance in visual recognition memory, leaving a considerable, but not unexpected, portion of the variance unexplained.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan A Rose
- Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, New York 10461, USA.
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83
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Rose SA, Feldman JF, Jankowski JJ. Processing speed in the 1st year of life: a longitudinal study of preterm and full-term infants. Dev Psychol 2002; 38:895-902. [PMID: 12428702 DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.38.6.895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 116] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Processing speed was assessed at 5, 7, and 12 months in full-term and preterm infants (birth-weight < 1,750 g). Speed was gauged directly in a new task by presenting infants with a series of paired faces, one that remained the same across trials and one that changed; trials continued until infants showed a consistent novelty preference. At all ages, preterms required about 20% more trials and 30% more time than full-terms to reach criterion. Among preterms, slower processing was associated with greater medical risk (e.g., respiratory distress syndrome). Developmental trajectories for speed (and attention) were similar for both groups. Thus, the deficits in processing speed previously found for preterms in childhood are already present in the 1st year of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan A Rose
- Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, New York 10461, USA.
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84
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85
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Wentworth N, Haith MM, Hood R. Spatiotemporal Regularity and Interevent Contingencies as Information for Infants' Visual Expectations. INFANCY 2002; 3:303-321. [DOI: 10.1207/s15327078in0303_2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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86
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Butcher PR, Kalverboer AF, Geuze RH, Stremmelaar EF. A longitudinal study of the development of shifts of gaze to a peripheral stimulus in preterm infants with transient periventricular echogenicity. J Exp Child Psychol 2002; 82:116-40. [PMID: 12083792 DOI: 10.1016/s0022-0965(02)00006-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Shifts of gaze to peripheral targets were studied longitudinally, between 6 and 26 weeks corrected age, in full-term and very preterm infants with transient periventricular echogenicity (PVE). Before 10 weeks, simple shifts of gaze were faster and more frequent in preterms with PVE<14 days than in full-terms, suggesting these preterms profited from additional early visual experience. After 16 weeks, there were subtle differences between full- and preterm infants in the development of shifts of gaze requiring disengagement. The differences suggest that, after disengagement had become established, its fine-tuning occurred more slowly in the preterms. Slower fine-tuning of disengagement was not associated with duration of PVE, since it was more marked in preterms with PVE<14 days than in preterms with PVE> or =14 days. The differences in performance between full- and preterm infants were small. However, even small differences may affect the efficiency of visually guided behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Phillipa R Butcher
- Department of Developmental and Experimental Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands.
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87
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Macchi Cassia V, Simion F. Individual differences in object-examining duration: do they reflect the use of different encoding strategies? COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2002. [DOI: 10.1016/s0885-2014(02)00113-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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88
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Gilmore RO, Thomas H. Examining individual differences in infants’ habituation patterns using objective quantitative techniques. Infant Behav Dev 2002. [DOI: 10.1016/s0163-6383(02)00142-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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89
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Colombo J. Recent advances in infant cognition: implications for long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation studies. Lipids 2001; 36:919-26. [PMID: 11724464 DOI: 10.1007/s11745-001-0802-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
The assessment of cognitive function in early life has recently become an issue for consideration in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-PUFA) supplementation studies. This article reviews the various means by which such assessment has been done in past LC-PUFA supplementation studies and provides some background on recent advances in the measurement of infant cognition that may need to be considered when planning or designing future supplementation studies. These include (i) consideration of the specificity of LC-PUFA effects on cognition, (ii) inclusion of multiple tasks or levels of measurement as outcome measures, and (iii) a stronger emphasis on developmental processes in the design of such studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Colombo
- Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, Department of Human Development, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA.
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90
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Abstract
Over the past decade, the study of attention in infancy has seen dramatic progress. This review delineates four attentional functions (alertness, spatial orienting, attention to object features, and endogenous attention) that are relevant to infancy and uses these functions as a framework for summarizing the developmental course of attention in infancy. Rudimentary forms of various attentional functions are present at birth, but each of the functions exhibits different and apparently dissociable periods of postnatal change during the first years of life. The role of attention in development should therefore be considered in the context of interaction among different systems at different levels of maturity during the first years of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Colombo
- Department of Human Development, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-2133, USA.
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91
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Courage ML, Howe ML. Long-term retention in 3.5-month-olds: familiarization time and individual differences in attentional style. J Exp Child Psychol 2001; 79:271-93. [PMID: 11394930 DOI: 10.1006/jecp.2000.2606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Using a paired-comparison procedure, we examined the effect of familiarization variables on 3.5-month-old infants' (n = 120) retention of dynamic visual stimuli after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays. The proportion of total looking time to the novel stimulus revealed novelty, null, and familiarity preferences after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays, respectively, for infants who were permitted 30 s of familiarization time. Twenty seconds of familiarization time was insufficient to produce novelty preferences. These results support models of infant retention in which the direction of attentional preferences (novel, familiar, or null) depends on memory accessibility. To examine the impact of individual differences in familiarization or attentional style on memory, infants were identified as long or short lookers according to their peak-look duration on pretest and familiarization trial measures. Compared to long lookers, short lookers showed better retention over time indicating that much of the variability in the infant group data could be accounted for by these individual differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- M L Courage
- Department of Psychology, Memorial University, St John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
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92
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Frick JE, Richards JE. Individual Differences in Infants' Recognition of Briefly Presented Visual Stimuli. INFANCY 2001; 2:331-352. [DOI: 10.1207/s15327078in0203_3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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93
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Rose SA, Feldman JF, Jankowski JJ. Attention and recognition memory in the 1st year of life: A longitudinal study of preterm and full-term infants. Dev Psychol 2001. [DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.37.1.135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 156] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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94
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Kavsek MJ. Visuelle Habituation und Dishabituation im Säuglingsalter: Das Komparatormodell. PSYCHOLOGISCHE RUNDSCHAU 2000. [DOI: 10.1026//0033-3042.51.4.178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Zusammenfassung. Das wichtigste, weil verbreiteste Verfahren zur Untersuchung visueller und kognitiver Leistungen im Säuglingsalter ist die Habituations-Dishabituationsmethode. Die Basisannahme des kognitiven oder Komparatormodells besteht darin, daß Habituation, d. i. die Abschwächung der Blickzuwendung bei einer wiederholten oder bei einer länger andauernden Stimuluspräsentation, den Aufbau eines mentalen Modells des Reizes indiziert, während eine anschließende Dishabituation, d. i. die Reaktivierung der visuellen Zuwendung bei Vorlage eines neuen Stimulus, anzeigt, daß der Pb die Diskrepanz zwischen dem neuen und dem Habituationsreiz wahrgenommen hat. Das auf dieser Annahme basierende Drei+Zwei-Komponenten-Modell wird vorgestellt und von Theorien abgegrenzt, die entweder die Gültigkeit dieses Modells abstreiten oder aber die Beteiligung weiterer, nicht-kognitiver Prozesse am Habituations-Dishabituationsgeschehen postulieren.
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95
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Willatts P, Forsyth JS. The role of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in infant cognitive development. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 2000; 63:95-100. [PMID: 10970720 DOI: 10.1054/plef.2000.0198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Dietary long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) in infancy are necessary for normal brain growth and development, and may play an important role in the development of infant cognition. Several randomized, controlled studies have evaluated the effects of feeding both term and preterm infants formula containing LCPUFA or no LCPUFA on a variety of measures of cognitive behaviour. Studies of the relation of LCPUFA to performance on tests of psychomotor development have produced inconsistent results, with supplemented infants demonstrating either higher scores or no differences in comparison to controls. This pattern suggests that global tests of development may be insufficiently sensitive for detecting the effects of LCPUFA on infant cognitive function. In contrast, studies assessing the influence of LCPUFA on development of specific cognitive behaviours have shown a significant advantage for supplemented infants on measures of visual attention and problem solving. These results suggest that LCPUFA may enhance more efficient information processing or attention regulation in infants. Whether there are any long-term effects of dietary LCPUFA in infancy on childhood cognition is not known.
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Affiliation(s)
- P Willatts
- Department of Psychology, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK.
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96
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Frick JE, Colombo J, Allen JR. Temporal Sequence of Global-Local Processing in 3-Month-Old Infants. INFANCY 2000; 1:375-386. [DOI: 10.1207/s15327078in0103_6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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97
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Choudhury N, Gorman KS. The relationship between sustained attention and cognitive performance in 17-24-month old toddlers. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2000. [DOI: 10.1002/1522-7219(200009)9:3<127::aid-icd225>3.0.co;2-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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