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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
Sensitivity to triadic attention between 6 weeks and 3 months of age
Tricia Striano1, Daniel Stahl, Allison Cleveland
1University Leipzig, Neurocognition & Development Group, Center for Advanced Studies, Germany. striano@cbs.mpg.de
Insights
Infants prefer social interaction. Even young infants (6 weeks) gaze more at adults who alternate attention between them and an object, showing early social attention skills.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Cognition
- Social Neuroscience
Background:
- Early infant attention is crucial for social development.
- Understanding infant perception of social cues informs developmental theories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate infant attention to alternating social cues.
- To determine if early infants discriminate between direct and indirect social attention.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Measured 6-week- and 3-month-old infants' gaze towards an adult.
- Adult alternated attention between infant and object versus object only.
- Study 2: Controlled face-to-face interaction in 6-week-olds.
Main Results:
- Infants gazed longer when adult attention alternated between infant and object.
- 6-week-olds did not differentiate triadic situations with controlled face-to-face interaction.
Conclusions:
- Early infants show a preference for alternating social attention.
- Controlled face-to-face interaction may be necessary for discrimination in younger infants.
Abstract:
In Study 1, 6-week- and 3-month-old infants gazed more to an adult when she alternated attention between an object and the infant versus when attention was directed only to the object. In Study 2, 6-week-olds did not discriminate between triadic situations with face-to-face interaction controlled.
