R. Feldman et Lc. Mayes, The cyclic organization of attention during habituation is related to infants' information processing, INFANT BEH, 22(1), 1999, pp. 37-49
We examined relations between one pattern of attention regulation-the cycli
c organization of attention during information processing- and infants' pro
cessing speed and recognition memory. Twenty three-month-old and 20 six-mon
th-old infants were assessed with an infant-control habituation procedure.
Attentive states were coded frame-by-frame and subjected to time-series ana
lysis. Processing speed was measured by infants' cumulative looking time to
criterion and memory was indexed by responsiveness to novel stimulus follo
wing habituation. Infants whose attention was regulated in cyclic oscillati
ons of attention and non-attention had shorter looking time and higher resp
onse to novelty. The relative proportion of transitory states and the numbe
r of cyclic peaks in the power spectra predicted processing speed but not m
emory. The relations between cyclicity and processing speed declined from 3
to 6 months. The regulation of attention in recurrent patterns is consider
ed a correlate of efficient processing during the early stages of perceptua
l development.