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Updated: Sep 11, 2025

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
A Rational Information Gathering Account of Infant Habituation.
Gili Karni1, Marcelo G Mattar2, Lauren Emberson3
1Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University.
Infant gaze patterns are explained by a new rational information gathering theory. This model accounts for non-monotonic changes in stimulus preference with experience, linking infant attention to broader exploration principles.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Developmental Psychology
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Infant gaze is crucial for studying cognitive development, but lacks a unified explanatory framework.
- Existing models of gaze preference do not fully explain non-monotonic changes with experience.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a normative, computational theory of visual exploration for infant gaze.
- To rationalize the non-monotonic gaze preference patterns observed in the Hunter and Ames (1988) model.
- To connect infant gaze to broader principles of rational information gathering.
Main Methods:
- Revisiting the Hunter and Ames (1988) descriptive account from a rational information gathering perspective.
- Developing a computational theory based on the interplay of stimulus informativeness (Gain) and future information utility (Need).
Main Results:
- The theory rationalizes the non-monotonic relationship between stimulus preference and exposure.
- It identifies the value of information gathering as dependent on both Gain and Need.
- The model provides quantitative interpretations and predictions for infant exploratory attention.
Conclusions:
- Infant gaze can be understood through a principle of rational information gathering.
- The theory unifies infant visual exploration with other sequential decision-making tasks.
- This framework offers new insights into factors influencing infant attention and learning.

