Open AccessHead and eyes: Looking behavior in 12- to 24-month-old infants
Author(s) -
Jeremy I. Borjon,
Drew H. Abney,
Chen Yu,
Linda B. Smith
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of vision
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.126
H-Index - 113
ISSN - 1534-7362
DOI - 10.1167/jov.21.8.18
Subject(s) - gaze , psychology , head (geology) , eye movement , eye tracking , object (grammar) , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , neuroscience , computer vision , artificial intelligence , computer science , psychoanalysis , geomorphology , geology
This study demonstrates evidence for a foundational process underlying active vision in older infants during object play. Using head-mounted eye-tracking and motion capture, looks to an object are shown to be tightly linked to and synchronous with a stilled head, regardless of the duration of gaze, for infants 12 to 24 months of age. Despite being a developmental period of rapid and marked changes in motor abilities, the dynamic coordination of head stabilization and sustained gaze to a visual target is developmentally invariant during the examined age range. The findings indicate that looking with an aligned head and eyes is a fundamental property of human vision and highlights the importance of studying looking behavior in freely moving perceivers in everyday contexts, opening new questions about the role of body movement in both typical and atypical development of visual attention.