Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 26, 2025

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
Revisiting the Object-Processing Paradigm in the Study of Gaze Cues: What Two Decades of Research Have Taught Us
Christine Michel1, Maleen Thiele2
1SRH University of Applied Sciences Heidelberg, Gera, Germany.
Abstract:
Infants are highly sensitive to social stimuli from early on in ontogeny. Social cues, including others' gaze, not only capture and guide infants' attention, but also modulate the efficiency in which the infant (brain) encodes and recognizes information. Over the last two decades, the novelty preference based object-processing paradigm has been instrumental in investigating this phenomenon experimentally. This paper offers a comprehensive review and critical evaluation of methodological aspects and empirical findings from previous research using this paradigm to study the influence of (non-)social cues on infants' object processing. We highlight the critical role of methodological details and discuss influential factors such as eye contact, infants' object-directed attention, naturalistic environments, and potential neural correlates associated with enhanced object encoding. A comprehensive review table summarizes key methodological details from previous studies to assist researchers in making informed decisions when designing future studies. We conclude that the object-processing paradigm has proven to be an effective method with high potential for future research disentangling the influence of fine-grained factors on infants' object memory.
Related Concept Videos
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development
Observational Learning
The Nativist Approach
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process...

