Aslin Richard N, McMurray Bob
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences University of Rochester.
Infancy. 2004 Sep;6(2):155-163. doi: 10.1207/s15327078in0602_1. Epub 2004 Sep 1.
Since the mid-1800s, experimental psychologists have been using eye movements and gaze direction to make inferences about perception and cognition in adults (Müller, 1826, cited in Boring, 1942). In the past 175 years, these oculomotor measures have been refined (see Kowler, 1990) and used to address similar questions in infants (see Aslin, 1985, 1987; Branson, 1982; Haith, 1980; Maurer, 1975). The general rationale for relying on these visual behaviors is that where one is looking is closely tied to what one is seeing. This is not to deny the fact that we can detect visual stimuli in the peripheral visual field, but rather that there is a bias to attend to and process information primarily when it is located in the central portion of the retina. Thus, although the direction of gaze is not perfectly correlated with the uptake of visual information (e.g., as in a blank stare or a covert shift of attention), there is a strong presumption that the direction of gaze can provide important information about visual stimuli even in newborn infants (Haith, 1966; Salapatek, 1968; Salapatek & Kessen, 1966).
自19世纪中叶以来，实验心理学家一直在利用眼动和注视方向来推断成年人的感知和认知情况（Müller，1826年，引自Boring，1942年）。在过去的175年里，这些眼动测量方法不断完善（见Kowler，1990年），并被用于研究婴儿的类似问题（见Aslin，1985年、1987年；Branson，1982年；Haith，1980年；Maurer，1975年）。依赖这些视觉行为的一般基本原理是，一个人的注视位置与他所看到的东西密切相关。这并不是要否认我们能够在周边视野中检测到视觉刺激这一事实，而是说，当信息位于视网膜中央部分时，我们存在主要关注和处理该信息的偏向。因此，尽管注视方向与视觉信息的获取并不完全相关（例如，如在茫然凝视或注意力的隐蔽转移中），但人们强烈假定，即使在新生儿中，注视方向也能提供有关视觉刺激的重要信息（Haith，1966年；Salapatek，1968年；Salapatek & Kessen，1966年）。
