ERIC Number: EJ1051740
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Aug
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Spatial Orienting Following Dynamic Cues in Infancy: Grasping Hands versus Inanimate Objects
Wronski, Caroline; Daum, Moritz M.
Developmental Psychology, v50 n8 p2020-2029 Aug 2014
Movement perception facilitates spatial orienting of attention in infants (Farroni, Johnson, Brockbank, & Simion, 2000). In a series of 4 experiments, we investigated how orienting of attention in infancy is modulated by dynamic stimuli. Experiment 1 (N = 36) demonstrated that 5-month-olds as well as 7-month-olds orient to the direction of a dynamically grasping human hand. Experiment 2 (N = 36) showed that 7-month-olds orient covertly to direction of a geometrical shape moving on the trajectory of the grasping movement, but 5-month-olds do not. Experiment 3 (N = 18) showed that mere linear translating object movement does not elicit covert orienting of attention in 7-month-olds. In Experiment 4 (N = 18), we found that 7-month-olds process both grasping direction and movement direction, which resulted in increased reaction times when these cues conflicted. These findings suggest that orienting of attention reflects rapid detection of goal-directed agents. Five-month-olds need the information of both movement and grasping direction, whereas 7-month-olds can use each of these directional cues in isolation.
Descriptors: Spatial Ability, Infants, Cues, Attention, Stimuli, Orientation, Age Differences, Geometric Concepts, Motion, Experiments, Reaction Time, Foreign Countries, Eye Movements
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A