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Updated: Dec 21, 2025

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG
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A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG

Published on: May 3, 2017

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Human and monkey infant attention to dynamic social and nonsocial stimuli

Sarah E Maylott1, Annika Paukner2, Yeojin A Ahn1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.

Developmental Psychobiology
|May 20, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Human and macaque infants show early social attention, with macaques exhibiting linear development and humans a nonlinear pattern. Human infants demonstrate longer sustained attention in their first year.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Comparative cognition
  • Primatology

Background:

  • Early social attention is crucial for cognitive and social development.
  • Understanding species-specific patterns of infant attention provides insights into evolutionary trajectories.
  • Longitudinal studies are essential for tracking developmental changes in attention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate and compare the developmental trajectories of social attention in human and macaque infants.
  • To establish normative behavioral patterns for infant social attention using eye-tracking technology.
  • To identify similarities and differences in early social attention between humans and nonhuman primates.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal eye-tracking study of typically developing human (N=69) and macaque (N=75) infants.
  • Infants viewed concurrent silent videos of social and nonsocial dynamic stimuli.
  • Data collected across multiple age points from 1 month (macaques) and 2 months (humans) up to 13 months (humans).

Main Results:

  • Both human and macaque infants preferentially oriented to social stimuli and increased this preference with age.
  • Macaque infants showed a linear increase in social attention from 1 to 5 months.
  • Human infants exhibited a nonlinear pattern, with a dip in social interest around 6-8 months before increasing again by 13 months; humans displayed longer sustained attention overall.

Conclusions:

  • Early social attention development shows both conserved (preference for social stimuli) and divergent (developmental patterns) features across species.
  • Findings provide a baseline for understanding the evolution of social attention and its developmental underpinnings.
  • Human infants' prolonged attention suggests unique socio-cognitive adaptations in the first year of life.

Keywords:
comparative psychologygazeinfancynonhuman primatesociality

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