Poster #3 - Infant Attention: Individual Differences Related to Socio-Demographic Risk

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

Infants’ ability to control their visual attention allows them to be active agents in their learning and development by choosing where to allocate their cognitive resources. The current investigation examined whether certain socio-demographic factors like SES and minority status predict young infants’ ability to control their attention as indexed by their average fixation durations. Smaller average fixation durations are indicative of more sophisticated processing as the viewer is better able to move about the visual scene to take in additional information (Neibur, & Koch, 1996; Nuthmann et al., 2010). Consistent with theories positing that executive functions underlie a wide range of outcomes associated with socio-demographic risk (Lengua, 2012), it was hypothesized that minority and lower-SES infants would exhibit higher average fixation durations indicating lower levels of attentional control.

Data from 120 3- to 9-month-olds, who were presented with images of adults while their fixations were recorded with an eye-tracker, were analyzed retrospectively. Infants were separated into three groups based on their level of socio-demographic risk. The low risk group (N = 47) had an estimated family income that fell above the median and were not a racial or ethnic minority, the moderate risk group (N = 53) had only one risk factor (either an estimated family income that fell below the median or were a racial or ethnic minority), and the high risk group (N = 20) had both risk factors (an estimated family income that fell below the median of the sample and were a racial or ethnic minority). The regression model including Participant Sex (1 = female, 0 = male), Age (measured in days), and Socio-demographic risk (2 = high risk; 1 = moderate risk; 0 = low risk) was found to be statistically preferred. Notably, socio-demographic risk was found to significantly predict infants’ fixation durations, beta = 0.49, t (116) = 6.10, p < .001, see Table 1. Furthermore, follow-up independent samples t-tests revealed that the fixation durations of the high risk group were significantly longer than those of the low- and moderate-risk groups, but the fixation durations of the low- and moderate-risk groups did not differ, see Figure 1. Thus, the results of the present study indicate that attentional control, as measured by fixation durations, varies with socio-demographic risk early in life and the combination of multiple risk factors appears to be especially predictive of deficits in attentional control. Given the small size of the high-risk group, further prospective studies that oversample minority, low-SES infants will be necessary to better understand the independent contributions of race and SES on the development of attentional control.

The results of the current investigation are consistent with theories positing that socio-demographic risk factors influence child development through the disruption of executive functions (Lengua, 2012). Furthermore, the present results suggest that attentional control may be a key target area for intervention efforts aiming to reduce the gap in developmental outcomes between minority and low-SES infants and children and their peers.

Authors

• Hannah White, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Alison Heck, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ramesh Bhatt, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author