Werchan, (2019). The emergence of object‐based visual attention in infancy: A role for family socioeconomic status and competing visual features.

Question 1

The development of spatial visual attention has been extensively studied in infants, but far less is known about the emergence of object‐based visual attention. We tested 3–5‐ and 9–12‐month‐old infants on a task that allowed us to measure infants’ attention orienting bias toward whole objects when they competed with color, motion, and orientation feature information. Infants’ attention orienting to whole objects was affected by the dimension of the competing visual feature. Whether attention was biased toward the whole object or its salient competing feature (e.g., “ball” or “red”) changed with age for the color feature, with infants biased toward whole objects with age. Moreover, family socioeconomic status predicted feature‐based attention in the youngest infants and object‐based attention in the older infants when color feature information competed with whole‐ object information.

Answer 1

oke

Question 2

spatial visual attention=

Answer 2

a “spotlight”highlights relevant information in the visual environment.

Question 3

attentional prioritizing hypothesis

Answer 3

Naturalistic visual scenes contain information
from multiple feature channels (e.g., color, motion, form, and orientation) that compete for attentional allocation in parallel. OBA is the product of the visual system assigning higher attentional priority to the elements within an attended object. By this view, attention must select the whole object for its constituent parts to receive the subsequent processing benefit

Question 4

doel van de studie

Answer 4

we examine this issue regarding how whole object/form information interacts with competing visual features for attentional priority, which is paramount to understanding the visual mechanisms underlying OBA development in infancy

Question 5

wat is de predictie voor object competing

Answer 5

Volgens de visual cascade model: Visual features including orientation and color are processed earlier in the hierarchy (areas V1‐V4), while relatively complex object representations are processed later in the hierarchy (inferotemporal cortex). In contrast, motion information, processed in the dorsal visual pathway, would not feed directly into cortical regions involved in object processing. Thus, our first prediction is that in infancy, when cortical connectivity is dominated by short‐range relative to long‐range connections (Gao et al., 2011), selection of the object in the presence of competing visual features (OBA) will be evident when orientation and color compete with object information, but not when motion competes with object information.

Question 6

methode

Answer 6

Infants were first primed with an object image (prime item), after which they immediately saw two test items presented side‐by‐side (see Figure 1 for depiction of all test stimuli). One test item (object/form‐match) matched the prime in object form but differed from the prime along a salient feature dimension—color, orientation, or motion. The other competing test item (feature‐match) differed in object form but matched the prime along the feature dimension. Within the object/form‐match test items, we included items that matched the prime only on basic form or shape (form‐match) as well as on form + identifying object characteristics (object‐match). This manipulation was designed to ensure that infants were not matching simply based on the form of the item (featural information), but were also encoding identifying object characteristics. We measured the distribution of infants’ visual attention orienting to object/form‐match and feature‐match items at test, interpreting orienting to indicate that that item had been selected for attentional priority during the brief prime, and that this selection resulted in continued attentional priority during the test display presentation.

Question 7

op welke dimensies verschilden de plaatjes

Answer 7

• color
• orientation
• motion

en

• object
• form

In each trial, infants were primed with a centrally presented item for 1,000 ms, after which they immediately saw two test items. One test item matched the color, orientation, or motion of the prime but was paired with a different object form. The other item matched the object/form of the prime (object‐match, form‐match), but not the previously presented color, motion, or orientation feature.

Question 8

resultaten

Answer 8

First, we found that OBA effects were stronger on trials where the prime item and test item matched on more than just basic form or shape information (i.e., trials where the prime and test items matched on form + identifying object characteristics). Second, and consistent with our predictions, OBA effects varied by developmental changes in the processing of the visual feature dimensions in question. Specifically, OBA was evident by 3–5 months in the orientation dimension and by 9–12 months in the color dimension. In contrast, OBA was not evident in the motion dimension in any age group and elicited feature‐based attention effects in 9–12‐month‐olds. Finally, we found that greater family income predicted feature‐based attention effects in 3–5‐month‐olds and
OBA effects in 9–12‐month‐olds in the color dimension.

Question 9

The data confirmed our prediction that OBA would be evident only in the orientation and color manipulations, and not in the motion manipulation. Orientation and color information are processed early in the ventral visual pathway cortical hierarchy (areas V1‐V4), which is also relevant for complex object representations (inferotemporal cortex)

Answer 9

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Question 10

ses verschillen en redenen hiervoor

Answer 10

Hoger inkomen = langer attentional priority to the feature match items in young infants, and object/form match items in older infants.

First, income may shape this pathway as it relates to the number and variability of
visual input through access to books, toys, and other complex visual stimuli (Bradley et al., 2001).
Second, income may reflect differences in caregiver interactions during visual exploration, where caregivers may practice directing attention to one of several competing features of a complex object stimulus, thereby supporting attentional processes. Caregiver scaffolding has been shown to be an external guide to direct and switch attention