Eye tracking infants : investigating the role of attention during learning on recognition memory

Taylor, G; Herbert, JS

Abstract

In the present study, eye tracker methodology was used to explore whether there were age-related changes in the focus of infant attention during a learning event and subsequent recognition memory for event features. Six- and 9-month old infants watched a video of an adult demonstrating a sequence of actions with an object while visual attention was recorded using an eye tracker. At both ages, attention was focused primarily on the object and person, with the background attended to for approximately 12% of their viewing time. Recognition memory for the person, object and background from the video was assessed immediately using a Visual Paired Comparison procedure. Despite focusing on the central features while watching the target video, infants showed only limited evidence of recognition memory for the individual components of the event. Taken together, these findings suggest that the early age-related changes in memory performance seen in the literature may not be the result of age-related changes in attentional focus during encoding.

Citation

Taylor, G., & Herbert, J. (2013). Eye tracking infants : investigating the role of attention during learning on recognition memory. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 54(1), 14-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12002

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 15, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Nov 30, 2012
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Oct 17, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 20, 2016
• Journal: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0036-5564
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9450
• Publisher: Wiley
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 14-19
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12002
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12002
• Related Public URLs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9450