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Leckey S, Bhagath S, Johnson EG, Ghetti S. Attention to novelty interferes with toddlers' emerging memory decision-making. Child Dev 2024; 95:98-113. [PMID: 37409734 PMCID: PMC10770300 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Revised: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023]
Abstract
Memory decision-making in 26- to 32-month-olds was investigated using visual-paired comparison paradigms, requiring toddlers to select familiar stimuli (Active condition) or view familiar and novel stimuli (Passive condition). In Experiment 1 (N = 108, 54.6% female, 62% White; replication N = 98), toddlers with higher accuracy in the Active condition showed reduced novelty preference in that condition, but not in the Passive condition (d = -.11). In Experiment 2 (N = 78; 52.6% female; 70.5% White), a brief 5% increase in target size boosted gaze transitions across conditions (d = .50) and accuracy in the Active condition (d = .53). Overall, evidence suggests that better attentional distribution can support decision-making. Research was conducted between 2014 and 2020 in Northern California.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Leckey
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
| | - Shefali Bhagath
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
| | | | - Simona Ghetti
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
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Jaffe-Dax S, Potter CE, Leung TS, Emberson LL, Lew-Williams C. The Influence of Memory on Visual Perception in Infants, Children, and Adults. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13381. [PMID: 37988257 PMCID: PMC10754275 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023]
Abstract
Perception is not an independent, in-the-moment event. Instead, perceiving involves integrating prior expectations with current observations. How does this ability develop from infancy through adulthood? We examined how prior visual experience shapes visual perception in infants, children, and adults. Using an identical task across age groups, we exposed participants to pairs of colorful stimuli and implicitly measured their ability to discriminate relative saturation levels. Results showed that adult participants were biased by previously experienced exemplars, and exhibited weakened in-the-moment discrimination between different levels of saturation. In contrast, infants and children showed less influence of memory in their perception, and they actually outperformed adults in discriminating between current levels of saturation. Our findings suggest that as humans develop, their perception relies more on prior experience and less on current observation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sagi Jaffe-Dax
- School of Psychological Sciences and Segol School for Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Christine E. Potter
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
| | - Tiffany S. Leung
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
| | - Lauren L. Emberson
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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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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Eschman B, Ross-Sheehy S. Visual Short-Term Memory Persists Across Multiple Fixations: An n-Back Approach to Quantifying Capacity in Infants and Adults. Psychol Sci 2023; 34:370-383. [PMID: 36608146 PMCID: PMC10152117 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221136509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Visual short-term memory (STM) is a foundational component of general cognition that develops rapidly during the first year of life. Although previous research has revealed important relations between overt visual fixation and memory formation, it is unknown whether infants can maintain distinct memories for sequentially fixated items or remember nonfixated array items. Participants (5-month-olds, 11-month-olds, and adults; n = 24 at each age) from the United States were tested in a passive change-detection paradigm with an n-back manipulation to examine memory for the last fixated item (one-back), second-to-last fixated item (two-back), or nonfixated item (change-other). Eye tracking was used to measure overt fixation while participants passively viewed arrays of colored circles. Results for all ages revealed convergent evidence of memory for up to two sequentially fixated objects (i.e., one-back, two-back), with moderate evidence for nonfixated array items (change-other). A permutation analysis examining change preference over time suggested that differences could not be explained by perseverative looking or location biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bret Eschman
- Department of Psychology, The University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga
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Oakes LM, DeBolt MC, Beckner AG, Voss AT, Cantrell LM. Infant Eye Gaze While Viewing Dynamic Faces. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11020231. [PMID: 33673342 PMCID: PMC7918747 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11020231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2020] [Revised: 02/05/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Research using eye tracking methods has revealed that when viewing faces, between 6 to 10 months of age, infants begin to shift visual attention from the eye region to the mouth region. Moreover, this shift varies with stimulus characteristics and infants’ experience with faces and languages. The current study examined the eye movements of a racially diverse sample of 98 infants between 7.5 and 10.5 months of age as they viewed movies of White and Asian American women reciting a nursery rhyme (the auditory component of the movies was replaced with music to eliminate the influence of the speech on infants’ looking behavior). Using an analytic approach inspired by the multiverse analysis approach, several measures from infants’ eye gaze were examined to identify patterns that were robust across different analyses. Although in general infants preferred the lower regions of the faces, i.e., the region containing the mouth, this preference depended on the stimulus characteristics and was stronger for infants whose typical experience included faces of more races and for infants who were exposed to multiple languages. These results show how we can leverage the richness of eye tracking data with infants to add to our understanding of the factors that influence infants’ visual exploration of faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M. Oakes
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; (M.C.D); (A.G.B.)
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA 95618, USA;
- Correspondence:
| | - Michaela C. DeBolt
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; (M.C.D); (A.G.B.)
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA 95618, USA;
| | - Aaron G. Beckner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; (M.C.D); (A.G.B.)
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA 95618, USA;
| | - Annika T. Voss
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA 95618, USA;
| | - Lisa M. Cantrell
- Department of Child and Adolescent Development, California State University, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA;
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Jaffe-Dax S, Potter C, Leung T, Lew-Williams C, Emberson LL. Memory integration into visual perception in infancy, childhood, and adulthood. COGSCI ... ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY. COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY (U.S.). CONFERENCE 2020; 2020:3322-3328. [PMID: 34553194 PMCID: PMC8455085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
We compared the influence of prior knowledge on visual perception in infants, children, and adults in order to explore the developmental trajectory by which prior knowledge is integrated with new sensory input. Using an identical task across age groups, we tested how participants' accumulated experience affected their ability to judge the relative saturation levels within a pair of sequentially-presented stimuli. We found that infants and children, relative to adults, showed greater influence of the current observation and reduced influence of memory in their perception. In fact, infants and children outperformed adults in discriminating between different levels of saturation, and their performance was less biased by previously-experienced exemplars. Thus, the development of perceptual integration of memory leads to less precise discrimination in the moment, but allows observers to make use of their prior experience in interpreting a complex sensory environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sagi Jaffe-Dax
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
| | - Christine Potter
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
| | - Tiffany Leung
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Psychology B Building Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500 USA
| | - Casey Lew-Williams
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
| | - Lauren L Emberson
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Peretsman Scully Hall, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
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