The purposes of this study are: (1) to attempt to show the weakness of the theory of a two-stage process of attending, i.e. having both separate and ordered focusing and elaborating aspects; and (2) to offer an alternative approach whereby both focusing and elaborating are under the service of cognitive variables. The discussion covers the issue…

Research conducted at Fels Research Institute and supported in part by grants HD-00868, FR-00222, and FR-05537 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

This study was interested in determining whether (1) novelty produces greater or less attention than familiarity and incongruity, and (2) if children's labeling behavior was related to their attentive behavior. Using 3- to 5-year-old children, the results indicate that attention, at least for the stimuli presented, is an increasing function from…

Three related experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of novel and familiar stimuli on infant attention. The procedure in each of the experiments was to place an infant before a matrix panel composed of six rows of six lights. Two patterns of lights were used to obtain the infants' fixation time: (1) a point pattern, a single…

Fixation time, smiling, vocalization, and fret/cry were recorded to obtain a complete picture of infants' responses to facial stimuli over the first year of life. Four stimuli were presented to 120 infants. Results of fixation data indicate that (1) there is a marked decrease in fixation toward facial stimuli within the first year, (2) at all ages…

The present series of studies was undertaken to explore intersensory processing in the very young. In the first experiment 1-, 4- and 7-month-old infants experienced simultaneously their mothers' faces and voices. The various conditions consisted of displacing the voice from the face. The results indicated that infants as young as one month of age…