Development of orienting to locations and objects in human infants

Area of Science:

• Cognitive development
• Infant perception
• Visual attention

Background:

• Adults and older infants exhibit "inhibition of return," a tendency to avoid recently inspected locations.
• Novel location preference develops in infancy.
• This development is linked to the maturation of eye movement control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the developmental trajectory of novelty preference in young infants.
• To examine the relationship between novel location preference and eye movement programming.
• To compare preferences for novel locations versus novel objects in infants.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted with three- and six-month-old infants.
• Experiment 1 assessed "inhibition of return" at different visual angles (10 vs. 30 degrees).
• Experiment 2 evaluated preferences for novel objects and novel locations at a 10-degree target eccentricity.

Main Results:

• Three-month-olds showed "inhibition of return" for near targets (10 degrees) but not for farther targets (30 degrees).
• Infants at both ages preferred novel objects at novel locations.
• At six months, infants showed a stronger preference for novel objects than novel locations, unlike three-month-olds.

Conclusions:

• Novel location preference (inhibition of return) development is closely tied to the eye movement system.
• Preferences for novel locations and novel objects develop independently.
• Findings shed light on infant development, physiology, and cognition.