Focused visual attention and distractibility in 10-month-old infants

Author(s): Capozzoli, M., Saltarelli, L. M.

Journal/Book: Infant Behav Develop. 1996; 19: 355 Chestnut St, Norwood, NJ 07648. Ablex Publ Corp. 281-293.

Abstract: This study was an investigation of state of attentional engagement and distractibility in infancy. Thirty-two 10-month-olds were observed playing with novel toys. For half the infants, periodic auditory-visual events occurred off to the side on an unpredictable schedule. For those infants, the probability of responding to the distracters was significantly lower when they were judged to be focused on the toys than when they were casually looking at the toys. When the infants' focused, as opposed to casual, attention was interrupted by a response, they were slower to turn away from the toy, they looked for shorter times at the distracter, and they were more likely to return to focused attention immediately. Over the course of the session, the infants in the distractor condition showed less casual attention and more focused attention to the toys than the infants in the no distracter condition. The length of individual looks was related to the state of attention, being shorter for casual attention in both distracter and no distracter conditions; however, look length did not predict the probability of a response or the latency to respond independent of the infant's state. The results suggest that (a) an infant's state as determined by behavioral evidence of focused attention is important in determining whether the infant responds to an extraneous event, and (b) even infants have ways of managing their attention in ''noisy'' complex environments.

Note: Article HA Ruff, Albert Einstein Coll Med, Kennedy Ctr, 1300 Morris Pk Ave, Bronx, NY 10461 USA

Keyword(s): attention; distractor condition; no distractor condition; distractibility; exploration; state of engagement; INERTIA

Zurück | Weiter