Training attentional control in infancy

Abstract

Several recent studies have reported that cognitive training in adults does not lead to generalized performance improvements [1, 2], whereas many studies with younger participants (children 4 years and older) have reported distal transfer [3, 4]. This is consistent with convergent evidence [5-8] for greater neural and behavioral plasticity earlier in development. We used gaze-contingent paradigms to train 11-month-old infants on a battery of attentional control tasks. Relative to an active control group, and following only a relatively short training period, posttraining assessments revealed improvements in cognitive control and sustained attention, reduced saccadic reaction times, and reduced latencies to disengage visual attention. Trend changes were also observed in spontaneous looking behavior during free play, but no change was found in working memory. The amount of training correlated with the degree of improvement on some measures. These findings are to our knowledge the first demonstration of distal transfer following attentional control training in infancy. Given the longitudinal relationships identified between early attentional control and learning in academic settings [9, 10], and the causal role that impaired control of attention may play in disrupting learning in several disorders [11-14], the current results open a number of avenues for future work.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1

Results from Training (A) Training: average difficulty level. The longest unbroken instance of each training task per session was identified, and the average difficulty level of each task was calculated (see Supplemental Experimental Procedures). Average difficulty level at visit 4 was normalized to 1, to allow comparison between the degrees of improvement at the different tasks. Error bars represent standard errors. (B) Training: training time. Gray lines show per-session training times for individual participants; the thick black line shows the average. The large change between visit 1 and visits 2–4 is because visit 1 was conducted immediately following the pretest assessment battery, so infants had already conducted circa 90 min of testing.

Figure 2

Results of Pre-post Assessments All plots show Δ, the change in performance (post − pre, baseline corrected) in the trained and control groups. Error bars represent standard errors. Asterisks indicate significance of ANCOVA analyses as described in Results: ∗p < 0.05; ∗∗p < 0.01; (∗)p < 0.10. (A) Cognitive control. Graph shows proportion of correct anticipatory looks in the preswitch (initial rule learning) and postswitch (unlearning one rule and learning another) phases. (B) Gap overlap. “Average RT” is the average of the three conditions that we administered (gap, baseline, and overlap). “Facilitation” shows the facilitation effect, and “disengagement” shows disengagement latencies. Because the valence of the observed changes in the task was negative, −Δ values are presented for ease of comparison. (C) Sustained attention. “Mixed dynamic/static” shows the results of experiment 1, which measured looking behavior toward a mixture of dynamic and static stimuli. “Interesting static” and “boring static” show the results of experiment 2, which measured looking behavior toward “interesting” and “boring” static images. (D) Working memory. Graph shows median delay length for trials followed by a correct response. (E) Structured free play. “Looks to object” shows number of separate looks to the target objects. “Shifts from object to person” shows number of attention shifts from looking at the objects to looking at either the experimenter or caregiver. “Average duration of looks to object” shows the average duration of looks toward the target objects.

Figure 3

Results of Pre-post Assessments: Selected Scatter Plots from the Trained Group Showing Amount of Training Time against Change in Performance at Posttesting The y axes show the amount of total training time (in minutes) that each participant received. The x axes show trained infants' change in performance (post − pre) on three measures; in (B), −Δ values are presented for ease of comparison. For all three graphs, a position to the right of the y axis indicates improved performance posttraining. The regression lines indicate the significant bivariate correlations (see Results) observed between training time and outcome measures in (A) and (C).