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Oakes LM. The cascading development of visual attention in infancy: Learning to look and looking to learn. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2023; 32:410-417. [PMID: 38107783 PMCID: PMC10723638 DOI: 10.1177/09637214231178744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
The development of visual attention in infancy is typically indexed by where and how long infants look, focusing on changes in alerting, orienting, or attentional control. However, visual attention and looking are both complex systems that are multiply determined. Moreover, infants' visual attention, looking, and learning are intimately connected. Infants learn to look, reflecting cascading effects of changes in attention, the visual system and motor control, as well as the information infants learn about the world around them. Furthermore infants' looking behavior provides the input infants use to perceive and learn about the world. Thus, infants look to learn about the world around them. A deeper understanding of development will be gained by appreciating the cascading effects of changes across these intertwined domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M Oakes
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, UC Davis
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2
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Holland CM, Sideris J, Thompson BL, Levitt P, Baranek GT. Exploring development of infant gaze, affect, and object exploration in a primarily Latino sample. Infant Behav Dev 2023; 70:101806. [PMID: 36571914 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2022] [Revised: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Infants demonstrate rapid development across the first years of life, which underlies increased human interactions that promote social-emotional development. In particular, gaze, affect, and object exploration are early indicators of engagement and show rapid changes in the first year of life. However, current understanding on developmental trajectories during infancy often comes from majority white, non-Hispanic/Latino samples. This longitudinal study explored the development of infant gaze, affect, and object exploration across 2-18 months of age in a sample of primarily Latino infants drawn from a pediatric community clinic. Videos of mother-infant play when infants were 2, 6, 9, 12 and 18 months were coded for durations of three types of behaviors: gaze, affect, and object exploration. Additionally, mother-infant play videos when the infant was 24 months of age were coded for joint engagement. Descriptive statistics for the three behavior types were obtained at each timepoint, and repeated measures analysis of covariance investigated the development of behaviors from timepoint to timepoint. Latent growth curve analyses were conducted to analyze developmental trajectories of capacities across 2-18 months, as well as development in relation to joint engagement at 24 months. Results indicate an important development period from 2 to 6 months of infants' life, unique developmental patterns of specific behaviors, and heterogeneity in gaze development in the sample and across ages. Overall, this study provides an important description of development within mother-infant play in a primarily Latino sample.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristin M Holland
- Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, United States.
| | - John Sideris
- The Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, United States
| | - Barbara L Thompson
- Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, United States
| | - Pat Levitt
- Program in Developmental Neuroscience and Neurogenetics, The Saban Research Institute, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, United States; Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, United States
| | - Grace T Baranek
- The Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, United States
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Scattolin MADA, Resegue RM, Rosário MCD. The impact of the environment on neurodevelopmental disorders in early childhood. J Pediatr (Rio J) 2022; 98 Suppl 1:S66-S72. [PMID: 34914896 PMCID: PMC9510913 DOI: 10.1016/j.jped.2021.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Revised: 11/04/2021] [Accepted: 11/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To review the literature about the environmental impact on children's mental, behavior, and neurodevelopmental disorders. SOURCES OF DATA A nonsystematic review of papers published on MEDLINE-PubMed was carried out using the terms environment and mental health or psychiatric disorders or neurodevelopmental disorders. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS Psychopathology emerges at different developmental times as the outcome of complex interactions between nature and nurture and may impact each person in different ways throughout childhood and determine adult outcomes. Mental health is intertwined with physical health and is strongly influenced by cultural, social and economic factors. The worldwide prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents is 13.4%, and the most frequent are anxiety, disruptive behavior disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression. Neurodevelopment begins at the embryonic stage and continues through adulthood with genetic differences, environmental exposure, and developmental timing acting synergistically and contingently. Early life experiences have been linked to a dysregulation of the neuroendocrine-immune circuitry which results in alterations of the brain during sensitive periods. Also, the environment may trigger modifications on the epigenome of the differentiating cell, leading to changes in the structure and function of the organs. Over 200 million children under 5 years are not fulfilling their developmental potential due to the exposure to multiple risk factors, including poverty, malnutrition and unsafe home environments. CONCLUSIONS Continued support for the promotion of a protective environment that comprises effective parent-child interactions is key in minimizing the effects of neurodevelopmental disorders throughout the lifetime.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mônica Ayres de Araújo Scattolin
- Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), Faculdade de Ciências Médicas e da Saúde, Departamento de Reprodução Humana e Infância, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
| | - Rosa Miranda Resegue
- Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Disciplina de Pediatria Geral e Comunitária, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Maria Conceição do Rosário
- Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Escola Paulista de Medicina, Departamento de Psiquiatria, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
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LoBue V, Ogren M. How the Emotional Environment Shapes the Emotional Life of the Child. POLICY INSIGHTS FROM THE BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES 2022; 9:137-144. [PMID: 36059861 PMCID: PMC9435752 DOI: 10.1177/23727322211067264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Emotion understanding facilitates the development of healthy social interactions. To develop emotion knowledge, infants and young children must learn to make inferences about people's dynamically changing facial and vocal expressions in the context of their everyday lives. Given that emotional information varies so widely, the emotional input that children receive might particularly shape their emotion understanding over time. This review explores how variation in children's received emotional input shapes their emotion understanding and their emotional behavior over the course of development. Variation in emotional input from caregivers shapes individual differences in infants' emotion perception and understanding, as well as older children's emotional behavior. Finally, this work can inform policy and focus interventions designed to help infants and young children with social-emotional development.
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Oakes LM. The development of visual attention in infancy: A cascade approach. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2022; 64:1-37. [PMID: 37080665 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2022.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Visual attention develops rapidly and significantly during the first postnatal years. At birth, infants have poor visual acuity, poor head and neck control, and as a result have little autonomy over where and how long they look. Across the first year, the neural systems that support alerting, orienting, and endogenous attention develop, allowing infants to more effectively focus their attention on information in the environment important for processing. However, visual attention is a system that develops in the context of the whole child, and fully understanding this development requires understanding how attentional systems interact and how these systems interact with other systems across wide domains. By adopting a cascades framework we can better position the development of visual attention in the context of the whole developing child. Specifically, development builds, with previous achievements setting the stage for current development, and current development having cascading consequences on future development. In addition, development reflects changes in multiple domains, and those domains influence each other across development. Finally, development reflects and produces changes in the input that the visual system receives; understanding the changing input is key to fully understand the development of visual attention. The development of visual attention is described in this context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M Oakes
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States.
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Franchak JM, Scott V, Luo C. A Contactless Method for Measuring Full-Day, Naturalistic Motor Behavior Using Wearable Inertial Sensors. Front Psychol 2021; 12:701343. [PMID: 34744865 PMCID: PMC8570382 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.701343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
How can researchers best measure infants' motor experiences in the home? Body position-whether infants are held, supine, prone, sitting, or upright-is an important developmental experience. However, the standard way of measuring infant body position, video recording by an experimenter in the home, can only capture short instances, may bias measurements, and conflicts with physical distancing guidelines resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we introduce and validate an alternative method that uses machine learning algorithms to classify infants' body position from a set of wearable inertial sensors. A laboratory study of 15 infants demonstrated that the method was sufficiently accurate to measure individual differences in the time that infants spent in each body position. Two case studies showed the feasibility of applying this method to testing infants in the home using a contactless equipment drop-off procedure.
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Affiliation(s)
- John M. Franchak
- Perception, Action, and Development Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, United States
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Brito NH, Fifer WP, Amso D, Barr R, Bell MA, Calkins S, Flynn A, Montgomery-Downs HE, Oakes LM, Richards JE, Samuelson LM, Colombo J. Beyond the Bayley: Neurocognitive Assessments of Development During Infancy and Toddlerhood. Dev Neuropsychol 2019; 44:220-247. [PMID: 30616391 PMCID: PMC6399032 DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2018.1564310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2018] [Revised: 12/15/2018] [Accepted: 12/17/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
The use of global, standardized instruments is conventional among clinicians and researchers interested in assessing neurocognitive development. Exclusively relying on these tests for evaluating effects may underestimate or miss specific effects on early cognition. The goal of this review is to identify alternative measures for possible inclusion in future clinical trials and interventions evaluating early neurocognitive development. The domains included for consideration are attention, memory, executive function, language, and socioemotional development. Although domain-based tests are limited, as psychometric properties have not yet been well-established, this review includes tasks and paradigms that have been reliably used across various developmental psychology laboratories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie H Brito
- a Department of Applied Psychology , New York University , New York , NY , USA
| | - William P Fifer
- b Division of Developmental Neuroscience , New York State Psychiatric Institute , New York , NY , USA
| | - Dima Amso
- c Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences , Brown University , Providence , RI , USA
| | - Rachel Barr
- d Department of Psychology , Georgetown University , Washington , DC , USA
| | - Martha Ann Bell
- e Department of Psychology , Virginia Tech , Blacksburg , VA , USA
| | - Susan Calkins
- f Department of Human Development and Family Studies , University of North Carolina at Greensboro , Greensboro , NC , USA
| | - Albert Flynn
- g School of Food and Nutritional Sciences , University College Cork , Cork , Ireland
| | | | - Lisa M Oakes
- i Department of Psychology , University of California , Davis , CA , USA
| | - John E Richards
- j Department of Psychology , University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA
| | | | - John Colombo
- l Department of Psychology , University of Kansas , Lawrence , KS , USA
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Cuevas K, Sheya A. Ontogenesis of learning and memory: Biopsychosocial and dynamical systems perspectives. Dev Psychobiol 2018; 61:402-415. [PMID: 30575962 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2018] [Revised: 10/12/2018] [Accepted: 10/31/2018] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
In this article, we review recent empirical and theoretical work on infant memory development, highlighting future directions for the field. We consider the state of the field since Carolyn Rovee-Collier's call for developmental scientists to "shift the focus from what to why," emphasizing the function of infant behavior and the value of integrating fractionized, highly specialized subfields. We discuss functional approaches of early learning and memory, including ecological models of memory development and relevant empirical work in human and non-human organisms. Ontogenetic changes in learning and memory occur in developing biological systems, which are embedded in broader socio-cultural contexts with shifting ecological demands that are in part determined by the infants themselves. We incorporate biopsychosocial and dynamical systems perspectives as we analyze the state of the field's integration of multiple areas of specialization to provide more holistic understanding of the contributing factors and underlying mechanisms of the development of memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly Cuevas
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Waterbury, Connecticut
| | - Adam Sheya
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
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Vales C, Smith LB. When a word is worth more than a picture: Words lower the threshold for object identification in 3-year-old children. J Exp Child Psychol 2018; 175:37-47. [PMID: 29986170 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.04.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2017] [Revised: 03/30/2018] [Accepted: 04/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
A large literature shows strong developmental links between early language abilities and later cognitive abilities. We present evidence for one pathway by which language may influence cognition and development: by influencing how visual information is momentarily processed. Children were asked to identify a target in clutter and either saw a visual preview of the target or heard the basic-level name of the target. We hypothesized that the name of the target should activate category-relevant information and, thus, facilitate more rapid detection of the target amid distractors. Children who heard the name of the target before search were more likely to correctly identify the target at faster speeds of response, a result that supports the idea that words lower the threshold for target identification. This finding has significant implication for understanding the source of vocabulary-mediated individual differences in cognitive achievement and, more generally, for the relation between language and thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catarina Vales
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
| | - Linda B Smith
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
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Markant J, Scott LS. Attention and Perceptual Learning Interact in the Development of the Other-Race Effect. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2018. [DOI: 10.1177/0963721418769884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Face-processing abilities are biased such that some faces are differentiated, recognized, and identified more readily than others. Across the first year of life, experience with faces shapes the development of face-processing biases. However, the developmental trajectory of face processing and important contributing factors are not well understood. In order to better characterize the development of face processing during infancy, we propose a model involving repeated interactions between attention and perceptual learning. This interactive framework predicts that bottom-up attention orienting to faces leads to rapid perceptual learning about frequently experienced faces, top-down selective-attention biases for familiar faces, and increasingly refined neural representations across the first year of life.
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Smith LB, Jayaraman S, Clerkin E, Yu C. The Developing Infant Creates a Curriculum for Statistical Learning. Trends Cogn Sci 2018. [PMID: 29519675 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
New efforts are using head cameras and eye-trackers worn by infants to capture everyday visual environments from the point of view of the infant learner. From this vantage point, the training sets for statistical learning develop as the sensorimotor abilities of the infant develop, yielding a series of ordered datasets for visual learning that differ in content and structure between timepoints but are highly selective at each timepoint. These changing environments may constitute a developmentally ordered curriculum that optimizes learning across many domains. Future advances in computational models will be necessary to connect the developmentally changing content and statistics of infant experience to the internal machinery that does the learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda B Smith
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
| | - Swapnaa Jayaraman
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Elizabeth Clerkin
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Chen Yu
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
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