3-015 - Theoretical and Methodological Challenges in Infant Eye-Tracking

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Eye-tracking methods have become a vital part of the infancy researcher’s toolkit, but progress in our understanding of infant visual attention is constrained by two challenges. First, it can be difficult to relate eye-tracking data to cognitive processes in spontaneous, unconstrained settings, and second, eye-movement recordings are susceptible to distortion from the algorithms used to parse raw data and instability from individual differences in infant state and oculomotor function. The goal of this symposium is to encourage debate about these theoretical and methodological challenges and strategies for solutions. Tsang and colleagues report novel analytical techniques for investigating intrinsic and extrinsic influences on scan patterns as infants view complex visual scenes. van Renswoude and colleagues use data-driven algorithms based on mixtures of von Mises distributions to compare biases in infant and adult saccade directions. Saez de Urabain and colleagues utilize computational modelling of fixation durations to examine saccadic control mechanisms in infancy. Finally, Wass and colleagues present methods to quantify data quality: spatial and temporal accuracy of eye-trackers, and consistency and robustness of the data.

These results offer an updated view of a rapidly growing methodology that has not yet converged on a standard set of analysis tools. Outstanding questions include: Are assumptions underlying interpretation of scanning patterns acceptable for different ages and clinical populations? What are the implications of data-driven, hypothesis-free approaches? What are the links between these approaches and infant learning and attention? Our symposium, therefore, highlights the current state-of-the-art in infant eye-tracking and possible blueprints for its future.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chairs

• Scott P Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles

• Richard N Aslin, Univ of Rochester

Individual Presentations

• Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors Guiding Infant Scene Perception - Presenting Author: Tawny Tsang, UCLA; Frederick Shic, Yale University; Bryan Nguyen, University of California, Los Angeles; Rahman Zolfaghari, University of California, Los Angeles; Scott P Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles

• Horizontal Bias in Infant Eye Movements during Scene Viewing - Presenting Author: Daan van Renswoude, University of Amsterdam; Maartje Raijmakers, University of Amsterdam; Ingmar Visser, University of Amsterdam; Scott P Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles

• Modeling Longitudinal Trajectories of Fixation Durations in Infants - Presenting Author: Irati R Saez de Urabain, Birkbeck College, University of London; Antje Nuthmann, University of Edinburgh; Mark H Johnson, Birkbeck College; Tim J Smith, Birkbeck College, University of London

• Data quality may affect many key dependent variables in eye tracker analyses - both in experimental and free-viewing paradigms - Presenting Author: Sam Wass, Cambridge University; Linda Forssman, University of Tampere; Jukka Leppanen, University of Tampere