Infant's transitions toward adult-like scanning

Visual scanning patterns of 6-13-week-old infants are derived from some 50 half-minute assessments in which the infants viewed static geometric figures. Measures include fixation dwell-times, saccade lengths, and the choices and sequences of saccadic targets. From the patterns of change across 3 age periods, it appears that as infants grow older an initial salience-guided scanning increasingly is replaced by volitional control over the choice of saccadic targets. The change tentatively is attributed to neural developments within later stages of the infant visual system.