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Attention and organization of behavior in high-risk infants
Insights
Full-term infants explore novel objects more than preterm infants. Preterm infants show longer delays in examining objects, suggesting attention and reactivity deficits.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Behavior
- Neurodevelopment
Background:
- Preterm infants often exhibit developmental delays compared to full-term peers.
- Understanding early object exploration provides insights into cognitive and motor development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare object exploration behaviors in preterm and full-term infants.
- To investigate differences in examining, mouthing, and banging behaviors.
- To analyze the sequence and timing of these behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Videotaping 7-month-old corrected age preterm and full-term infants interacting with novel objects.
- Scoring durations of examining, mouthing, and banging.
- Analyzing latency to first behavior and behavior decline over time.
Main Results:
- Full-term infants spent more time examining objects than preterm infants.
- Mouthing and banging durations were similar between groups.
- Preterm infants had significantly longer latencies to initiate object examination.
Conclusions:
- Preterm infants exhibit deficits in reactivity and sustained attention affecting object exploration.
- Delayed object examination in preterm infants may indicate underlying neurodevelopmental challenges.
- Behavioral sequencing differs between preterm and full-term infants.
Abstract:
Preterm infants at 7 months, corrected age, and 7-month-old full-term infants were videotaped while they played with a series of novel objects for a minute apiece. Each infant's videotape was scored for duration of examining (focused visual inspection), duration of mouthing, and duration of slapping or banging the objects. Full-term infants examined the objects significantly more than the preterms; the two groups showed equivalent levels of mouthing and banging. Each minute was then divided into 15-second segments. Only examining showed a decline over time, and then only for the full-terms. When the three behaviors were compared on the latency to the first episode of the behavior in each trial, it was found that the behavior of the full-terms was clearly differentiated in terms of sequence with examining having the shortest latency, mouthing the next shortest, and banging the longest. For the preterms, however, there were no differences among the mean latencies. The major difference between the two groups was in the latency to examine, which was significantly longer in the preterms. In general, the results for the preterms were not related to developmental level, but appeared to be due to deficits in both reactivity to stimulation and ability to sustain attention.