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The emergence of object-based visual attention in infancy: A role for family socioeconomic status and competing

Denise M Werchan1, Andrew Lynn1, Natasha Z Kirkham2

  • 1Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
|July 18, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Infants

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Infant Visual Attention

Background:

  • Spatial visual attention development in infants is well-studied.
  • Emergence of object-based visual attention in infants is less understood.
  • Distinguishing between feature-based and object-based attention is crucial for cognitive development research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the development of object-based visual attention in infants.
  • To examine how infants orient attention between whole objects and competing visual features (color, motion, orientation).
  • To explore the influence of age and socioeconomic status on attention allocation.

Main Methods:

  • Tested 3-5-month-old and 9-12-month-old infants using a novel attention orienting task.
  • Measured infants' bias towards whole objects versus salient features (e.g., color, motion).
  • Analyzed the impact of competing visual feature dimensions on attention.
  • Correlated family socioeconomic status with attention biases.

Main Results:

  • Infants' attention orienting was influenced by the dimension of the competing visual feature.
  • Attention bias shifted with age for the color feature, with older infants showing a stronger bias towards whole objects.
  • Family socioeconomic status predicted attention biases: feature-based in younger infants and object-based in older infants for color-based competition.

Conclusions:

  • Object-based visual attention develops significantly during infancy, particularly for color-defined objects.
  • Age-related changes in attention reflect a maturing ability to prioritize whole objects over salient features.
  • Socioeconomic status may play a role in shaping early attentional development and feature-vs-object prioritization.

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