Building a Visual Brain: Using Eye Movements to Characterize Attentional Phenotypes in Infants

• In Event: 1-052 - Advances in the Study of Attention: Individual Differences, Developmental Trajectories, and Relations with Outcomes

Integrative Statement

The phrase visual attention has been used to describe multiple behaviors, from low-level reflexive eye movements to high-level information processing. Over the last several decades, many such attention tasks have been shown to predict later cognitive development (e.g., Bonin, Pomerleau, & Malcuit, 1998; Canfield, Smith, Brezsnyak, & Snow, 1997; Fagan, Holland, & Wheeler, 2007; Papageorgiou et al., 2014; Rose & Wallace, 1985). However, most tasks rely on multiple cognitive processes including attentional vigilance, orienting, encoding speed and memory, making it difficult to discern which ability is most predictive. Thus, the goal of the present paper is to isolate one aspect of attentional functioning, exogenous orienting, in an attempt to determine if these simple visual orienting responses can explain individual differences in cognitive development.

To accomplish this, we tested infants at 5-, 8-, and 11-months using the Infant Orienting With Attention task (IOWA; Ross-Sheehy et al., 2015). The IOWA task can be used to assess visual orienting responses across five distinct cued-attention conditions. Reaction time (RT) and accuracy scores were then used to create multiple attention, accuracy and orienting speed scores, each of which assessed slightly different attentional proficiencies. We reasoned that by examining visual orienting responses under a variety of conditions, we might identify overarching attentional patterns or phenotypes that are stable and contribute to emerging individual differences in cognitive development. Eye tracking was used to capture orienting responses.

We submitted six key attention scores to a latent cluster analysis in an attempt to identify distinct patterns of responding. This analysis produced three distinct clusters, each characterizing a unique attentional phenotype: “High reactive” infants (4%) are characterized by strong spatial attention and fast reaction times accompanied by high error rates. This pattern suggests fast processing speed with little to no inhibitory control of eye movements. “Low reactive” infants (41%) have weak spatial attention, slow reaction times, and low error rates, suggesting relatively slow processing speed. Finally, “High flexible” infants (55%) have strong spatial attention, fast reaction times, and moderate to low error rates, suggesting both fast processing speed, and strong inhibitory control of eye movements.

To assess the stability of these attentional phenotypes, we fit growth trajectory models to each score across all three ages. Results reveal clear and significant differences in growth trajectory as a function of attentional phenotype for 4 of the 6 attention scores (Table 1) and identify with surprising specificity mechanisms of emerging individual differences. Finally, data collected from both concurrent and follow-up cognitive tasks demonstrate that these attention phenotypes also predict individual differences on more general measures of cognitive functioning. Taken together, these results suggest that enduring patterns of development may be at least partially explained by examining visual orienting responses.

Authors

• Shannon Ross-Sheehy, University of Tennesee, Knoxville
  Presenting Author

• Bret Eschman, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Esther Reynolds, University of Tennessee
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda Rosales, University of Tennessee
  Non-Presenting Author