The control of social attention from 1 to 4 months

Perra, Oliver and Gattis, Merideth Leigh ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8665-7577 2010. The control of social attention from 1 to 4 months. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 28 (4) , pp. 891-908. 10.1348/026151010X487014

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Abstract

The control of social attention during early infancy was investigated in two studies. In both studies, an adult turned towards one of two targets within the infant's immediate visual field. We tested: (a) whether infants were able to follow the direction of the adult's head turn; and (b) whether following a head turn was accompanied by further gaze shifts between experimenter and target. In the first study, 1-month-olds did not demonstrate attention following at the group level. In addition, those infants who turned towards the same target remained fixed on it and did not shift attention again. In Study 2, we tested infants longitudinally at 2–4 months. At the group level, infants followed the adult's head turn at 3 and 4 months but not at 2 months. Those infants who turned towards the same target at 3 and 4 months also shifted gaze back and forth between experimenter and target. By 3 months, infants seem able to capitalize on the social environment to disengage and distribute attention more flexibly. The results support the claim that the control of social attention begins in early infancy, and are consistent with the hypothesis that following the attention of other people is dependent on the development of disengagement skills.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
Publisher:	British Psychological Society
ISSN:	0261-510X
Last Modified:	18 Oct 2022 12:53
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/11526

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