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Peripheral Stimulus Localization by 5‐ to 14‐Week‐Old Infants During Phases of Attention
Author(s) -
Hunter Sharon K.,
Richards John E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1207/s15327078in0401_1
Subject(s) - psychology , stimulus (psychology) , peripheral , selective attention , developmental psychology , audiology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , cognition , medicine
This study examined the effect of attention in young infants on the saccadic localization of peripheral stimuli. Infants ranging in age from 5 to 14 weeks were tested using a peripheral stimulus detection paradigm. The presence of a central fixation stimulus decreased detection probability, particularly if attention was engaged with the central stimulus. Peripheral stimulus localization usually was accomplished with a single eye movement. When localization was accomplished by multiple eye movements, corrective saccades occurred most frequently and fixed‐amplitude hypometric saccades occurred less frequently. A decrease in the slope of the linear component of the main sequence was found from 5 to 11 weeks of age, and this decrease was independent of attention.