Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026
07:09
Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior
Published on: November 14, 2018
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Moment-to-Moment Coordination of Parent-Infant Visual Attention: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Framework Within
Erim Kızıldere1,2, Katharine Graf Estes1,2, Mijke Rhemtulla2
1Center for Mind and Brain and Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, California, USA.
Developmental Science
|May 6, 2026
Summary
Infants drive mutual gaze with caregivers, while joint attention to objects is a reciprocal process. This study reveals the dynamic, co-constructed nature of infant-caregiver attention coordination during play.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Understanding the moment-to-moment coordination of attention between caregivers and infants is crucial for developmental research.
- Previous studies have explored joint attention but often lack the dynamic, second-by-second analysis of reciprocal influence.
- The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) provides a framework to examine how each partner influences their own and their partner's behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the second-by-second coordination of gaze between caregivers and 9-month-old infants during naturalistic play.
- To apply the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model within a Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM) framework to analyze gaze coordination.
- To differentiate the dynamics of mutual gaze (infant-caregiver faces) versus object-focused joint attention.
Main Methods:
- Utilized head-mounted eye trackers to record gaze data from 50 North American, middle-class caregivers and their 9-month-old infants during play.
- Employed the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model within Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling to simultaneously estimate actor and partner effects on gaze.
- Analyzed gaze patterns during naturalistic play with a puzzle and activity board.
Main Results:
- Both infants and caregivers influenced their own and their partner's subsequent gaze.
- Infant-initiated looks to caregiver faces more strongly predicted caregiver looks than vice versa, indicating infant-driven mutual gaze.
- Object-focused joint attention showed reciprocal influence, and infants exhibited more sustained attention ('stickier' gaze) than caregivers.
Conclusions:
- The coordination of attention between caregivers and infants is a co-constructed, dynamic process.
- Mutual gaze is primarily driven by infant attention, while joint attention to objects involves reciprocal coordination.
- Infants demonstrate a more sustained attentional focus compared to their caregivers during these interactions.
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