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Exploring the impact of unpredictability of household resources on infant attention

Lissete A Giménez1, Denise M Werchan2, Chloe J Rice3

  • 1New York University, Department of Applied Psychology, USA.

Infant Behavior & Development
|August 11, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Early environmental unpredictability, specifically in household resources, is linked to infant attention. Infants exposed to unpredictable resources showed more frequent gaze shifts, suggesting a distinct attentional profile.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Infant Research

Background:

  • Early environmental unpredictability is linked to cognitive and socioemotional development.
  • Its impact on foundational infant attentional processes is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between household resource unpredictability and infant visual attention.
  • To explore how environmental instability shapes early attentional development.

Main Methods:

  • A remote visual attention task was administered to 160 infants (3-12 months).
  • Infant eye-gaze behavior was tracked using webcam-based eye-tracking.
  • Measures included total looking time, peak look duration, and gaze shifts.

Main Results:

  • Infants of caregivers reporting higher resource unpredictability exhibited more gaze shifts.
  • This association remained significant even when controlling for resource deprivation severity.
  • Exploratory analysis showed similar patterns in gaze shifts during visual encoding.

Conclusions:

  • Early exposure to unpredictable resource environments may be associated with increased gaze shifts in infants.
  • This suggests an attentional profile characterized by frequent shifts, not necessarily reduced capacity.
  • The study differentiates resource unpredictability from deprivation, informing research on environmental instability and attention.

Keywords:
Infant attentionResource unpredictabilityWebcam eye tracking

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