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The control of social attention from 1 to 4 months

Oliver Perra1, Merideth Gattis

  • 1Institute of Child Care Research, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast, UK. o.perra@qub.ac.uk

The British Journal of Developmental Psychology
|December 3, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Infants develop social attention skills early in life. By 3 months, babies follow adult gaze and shift attention flexibly, indicating developing disengagement abilities.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Infant Behavior

Background:

  • Understanding the origins of social attention is crucial for cognitive development.
  • Early infancy is a critical period for the emergence of social-communication skills.
  • The ability to follow gaze and share attention develops progressively in infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the developmental trajectory of social attention control in early infancy.
  • To determine if infants can follow an adult's head turn and shift gaze between the experimenter and a target.
  • To examine the relationship between attention following and gaze shifting abilities in infants.

Main Methods:

  • Two studies were conducted, involving infants at different age points (1-month-olds and longitudinally from 2-4 months).
  • An adult experimenter turned their head towards one of two targets in the infant's visual field.
  • Infants' head and eye movements were observed to assess attention following and gaze shifting behaviors.

Main Results:

  • One-month-old infants did not show group-level attention following.
  • By 3 and 4 months, infants demonstrated the ability to follow the adult's head turn.
  • Infants at 3 and 4 months who followed the head turn also exhibited gaze shifts between the experimenter and target.

Conclusions:

  • The control of social attention emerges in early infancy, with significant development between 2 and 3 months.
  • Following another person's attention appears dependent on the maturation of disengagement skills.
  • By 3 months, infants utilize social cues to flexibly distribute their attention.

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