Visual habituation, sensorimotor development, and tempo of play in one-year-old infants.

The pattern of relationships between rate of visual habituation, sensorimotor development, play tempo, and motor activity was examined in 168 1-year-old infants. Subjects were exposed to 3 consecutive series of a repeated visual stimulus and the rate of habituation determined for each series. The measures of sensorimotor development included both standard psychometric and Piagetian scales. Measures of play tempo and motor activity were obtained from observations of free play. Longer fixation time to the initial stimulus presentation and faster habituation on the original series were associated with advanced sensorimotor development for girls. Longer initial fixation time in boys was associated with a slower tempo of play. The magnitude of these relationships, however, was found to be dependent on whether the subject completed the entire experimental session or was terminated early due to irritability or drowsiness. The results suggest that both the sex and state of the infant are important moderators of the relationship between measure of visual attention and other individual difference variables.