Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
11:18

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task

Published on: June 1, 2015

11.2K

Changes in infant visual attention when observing repeated actions

Felix-Sebastian Koch1, Anett Sundqvist1, Jane Herbert2

  • 1Infant and Child Lab, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden.

Infant Behavior & Development
|February 7, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Infants pay more attention to a person's face as they see the same action demonstrated repeatedly. Familiarity with objects influences infant attention, but not familiarity with the presenter.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Infant Visual Attention

Background:

  • Infants exhibit early visual preferences for faces.
  • Infants possess observational learning capabilities.
  • Understanding how infant attention shifts with familiarity is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate changes in infant visual attention as familiarity with a person and demonstrated actions increases.
  • To analyze the relationship between face-to-action ratio and repeated exposure to novel actions.

Main Methods:

  • Tracking visual attention patterns in 12- and 16-month-old infants (n=90).
  • Infants watched videos of an adult demonstrating novel actions with objects three times.
  • Calculating a face-to-action ratio for visual attention across repetitions.

Main Results:

  • The face-to-action ratio significantly increased with each repetition of the action.
  • Infant attention shifted towards the face relative to the action upon repeated demonstrations.
  • Object familiarity influenced the face-to-action ratio in 12-month-olds.

Conclusions:

  • Infant attention dynamically adjusts to increasing familiarity with demonstrated actions.
  • Early face preferences are modulated by repeated action observation in a dynamic context.
  • Object familiarity, not presenter familiarity, impacts infant attention allocation.

Keywords:
Action observationEye trackingFace preferenceVisual attention

More Related Videos

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior07:09

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Published on: November 14, 2018

11.5K
Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation12:33

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Published on: December 31, 2013

9.4K

Related Concept Videos

Naturalistic Observations02:30

Naturalistic Observations

If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances...
17.6K
Fixed Action Patterns01:06

Fixed Action Patterns

A fixed action pattern (FAP) is a specific, hard-wired sequence of behaviors that occurs in response to an external stimulus, called a sign stimulus. The behavior is “fixed” because it is essentially unchangeable—proceeding similarly across individuals of a species every time it occurs.
17.7K
Action Potentials01:41

Action Potentials

Overview
143.3K
Action Potential01:31

Action Potential

Neurons communicate by firing action potentials—the electrochemical signal that is propagated along the axon. The signal results in the release of neurotransmitters at axon terminals, thereby transmitting information to the nervous system. An action potential is a specific "all-or-none" change in membrane potential that results in a rapid spike in voltage.
Membrane potential in neurons
Neurons typically have a resting membrane potential of about -70 millivolts (mV). When they receive...
4.8K
Action Potential01:14

Action Potential

Neurons communicate by firing action potentials—the electrochemical signal that is propagated along the axon. The signal results in the release of neurotransmitters at axon terminals, thereby transmitting information to the nervous system. An action potential is a specific "all-or-none" change in membrane potential that results in a rapid spike in voltage.
Membrane potential in neurons
Neurons typically have a resting membrane potential of about -70 millivolts (mV). When they receive...
11.5K
Observational Learning01:12

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's observational learning, also known as imitation or modeling, occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior. It is a quicker process than operant conditioning. A well-known example is the Bobo doll study, where children who saw an adult acting aggressively towards the doll were more likely to act aggressively when left alone, compared to those who observed a nonaggressive adult. Many psychologists view observational learning as a form of latent learning...
1.0K