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ERIC Number: ED179296
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1979-Mar
Pages: 25
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Infants' Visual Localization of Visual and Auditory Targets.
Bechtold, A. Gordon; And Others
This study is an investigation of 2-month-old infants' abilities to visually localize visual and auditory peripheral stimuli. Each subject (N=40) was presented with 50 trials; 25 of these visual and 25 auditory. The infant was placed in a semi-upright infant seat positioned 122 cm from the center speaker of an arc formed by five loudspeakers. At each speaker location there was also a low-intensity light source. Each trial was initiated with the center light on. Via an infra-red camera aimed at the infant's face, an experimenter in the control room could determine whether the infant was fixating this light, and when the baby was doing so, the trial proper was begun. The center light was then replaced for 5 seconds by a similar light at one of the five positions on visual trials and by a sound at one of the five positions on auditory trials. The visual and auditory trials were randomly interspersed, and the order of stimulus positions was also randomly determined. Also recorded were the infant's eye movements using electro-oculography. Results indicate that infants are able to visually localize visual and auditory stimuli. However, these two localization responses are quite different from one another. While infants turn their eyes toward peripheral visual stimuli with the consistency and precision characteristic of reflex behavior, they turn their eyes toward peripheral auditory stimuli with considerably less consistency and with no precision at all. (Author/MP)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Public Health Service (DHEW), Rockville, MD.
Authoring Institution: Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis. Center for Research in Human Learning.; Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis. Inst. of Child Development .
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A