Infant visual attention and object recognition

Abstract

This paper explores the role visual attention plays in the recognition of objects in infancy. Research and theory on the development of infant attention and recognition memory are reviewed in three major sections. The first section reviews some of the major findings and theory emerging from a rich tradition of behavioral research utilizing preferential looking tasks to examine visual attention and recognition memory in infancy. The second section examines research utilizing neural measures of attention and object recognition in infancy as well as research on brain-behavior relations in the early development of attention and recognition memory. The third section addresses potential areas of the brain involved in infant object recognition and visual attention. An integrated synthesis of some of the existing models of the development of visual attention is presented which may account for the observed changes in behavioral and neural measures of visual attention and object recognition that occur across infancy.

Keywords: Event-related potentials; Infancy; Object recognition; Visual attention.

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1

Grand average waveforms showing the Nc and LSW ERP components by electrode location. The ERP waveforms are shown to the left with arrows indicating the timing and location of Nc and the LSW. The Y-axis indicates change in amplitude from baseline and the X-axis indicates time following stimulus onset. The layout of the EGI 128-channel sensor net is shown to the right with the electrode clusters for each of the averaged waveforms in boxes (figure adapted from Reynolds, Guy, & Zhang, 2011).

Figure 2

Mean amplitude of the LSW by looker type and stimulus type at frontal electrodes. The Y-axis represents change in amplitude from baseline and the X-axis represents time following stimulus onset following familiar (thin line) and novel (bold line) stimulus presentations. The shaded area indicates the portion of the waveform examined in the LSW analysis from 1 to 2 sec following stimulus onset (figure adapted from Reynolds, Guy, & Zhang, 2011).

Figure 3

ERP amplitude is presented by stimulus type at frontal electrodes. The left panel shows ERP waveforms for short and long lookers at Fz. The shaded areas on the waveform plots indicate the time-windows for the Nc (350–750 ms) and LSW (1–2 s) analyses. The right panel shows topographical plots at peak amplitude Nc by stimulus type and looker type. The black dots in the topographical plots indicate the location of the electrodes used in the midline frontal and central electrode clusters (figure adapted from Guy, Reynolds, & Zhang, 2013).

Figure 4

Late slow wave event-related potentials at temporal electrodes from 1 to 2 s following stimulus onset. Panel A: Display of differences in responding following infrequent-familiar stimulus presentations during attention and inattention. Panel B: Display of responses to the three memory stimulus types during attention (figure adapted from Reynolds & Richards, 2005).

Figure 5

Common equivalent current dipoles activated across recognition memory tasks. Age groups are divided into separate columns. The best fitting areas in common between the ERP and VPC tasks are indicated using the color scale. The majority of best fitting areas were located in inferior prefrontal regions (figure adapted from Reynolds, Courage, & Richards, 2010).