Associations between visual attention and joint attention in infancy

• In Event: Social development in infancy: Neural, behavioral, and cognitive influences across the first year of life

Abstract

Early visual attention and joint attention are foundational for optimizing learning opportunities for young children. During the first year of life, changes in early brain development support important gains in infants’ capacity for attention regulation (Bornstein & Sigman, 1986). The capacity for better attention regulation in infancy positively predicts later language comprehension in toddlerhood (Kannasss & Oakes, 2008). Joint attention, which involves the ability to coordinate one’s own visual attention with another person’s focus of attention for the social purpose of sharing an event or experience with others (Bakeman & Adamson, 1984; Scaife & Bruner, 1975), also predicts later language development in typically and atypically developing populations (Mundy, Sigman & Kasari, 2006). Importantly, theory and emerging evidence support the foundational role of early attention regulation for developing joint attention capacity and later language (Leung & Rheingold, 1981; Salley, Panneton & Colombo, 2013). However, concurrent links between visual attention and joint attention have not been well studied. One previous study reported an association between early attention and later joint attention; specifically, infants’ attention orienting in the first month of life predicted their joint attention at 12-months-old (Salley et al., 2016).

Here we investigated the relation between attention and language in large cross-sectional (n=222) cohort of infants. Caregivers brought their infants to visit the lab at 6, 8, 10, or 12 months of age to participate in a variety of tasks. To measure infants’ visual attention disengagement, a modified gap-overlap task (e.g., Landry and Bryson, 2004; Elsabbagh et al., 2009), consisting of both social (female with affectively positive speech) and non-social (spinning pinwheel with music) targets, was presented. The Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS; Mundy et al., 2003), a structured, observational measure for assessing preverbal communication behaviors (eye contact, vocalizations, gesture) for both social (initiating joint attention; IJA) and requesting (initiating behavior regulation; IBR) functions, was also presented and coded offline by trained observers.

Correlational analyses indicated that individual differences in infants’ attention disengagement (see Figure 1) were significantly correlated with their total frequency of IJA (r=.423, p=.013); and IBR (r=.475, p=.005) for the 12 month cohort. Attention disengagement and frequency of preverbal communication were not significantly related at 6, 8, or 10 months of age. When social and nonsocial target type was examined for the 12 month cohort, a differential association with preverbal communication was observed. Attention disengagement to social targets significantly correlated with frequency of IJA (r=.527, p=.001); in contrast, latency to disengage attention from nonsocial targets was significantly associated with frequency of IBR (r=.443, p=.009).

Results provide evidence for developmental changes in the associations between early attention regulation and emerging preverbal communication skills for typically developing infants. In addition, current results indicate differential associations between social and nonsocial attention and communication for social (joint attention) versus requesting (behavioral regulation) purposes. These findings have implications for understanding the developmental course of social attention and early communication in infancy.

Authors

• Brenda J Salley, University of Kansas Medical Center
  Presenting Author

• Corinne Walker, University of Kansas Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author