Malcuit G, Bastien C, Pomerleau A
Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada.
J Exp Child Psychol. 1996 Jul;62(2):272-91. doi: 10.1006/jecp.1996.0031.
In experiments on infant attention, the sudden presentation of a stimulus elicits an orienting response (OR). Its persisting presence then reinforces its visual exploration. When subsequently projected, this stimulus comes to signal the availability of something to look at. The aim of the present study was to sort out the effect of these three functional values of stimuli on OR elicitation. Fifty 4-month-old infants (M = 120 days) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions. In Condition 1, they received 12 presentations of a 2-s visual stimulus. In Condition 2, the same 12 short stimuli presentations were accompanied by the projection of another event, visible after having the infant's gaze oriented toward the first stimulus. Condition 3 was a infant-control procedure: the same stimulus was repeatedly presented and remained on for as long as the infant looked at it. In each condition, half of the infants were shown a 4 x 4 checkerboard pattern, the others a 8 x 8 pattern. After this phase of repetitive presentation of one checkerboard pattern, the other was presented for two test trials, followed by two dishabituation trials with the initial first pattern. When the eliciting function of the stimulus (Condition 1) was isolated, orienting responses decreased over trials, and were of different latencies, according to stimulus complexity. On the other hand, the isolated function of the stimulus (Condition 2) raised its capacity to elicit ORs. Stimulus complexity was a determining factor in OR habituation, in attention recovery and in dishabituation for Conditions 1 and 3, but it was overshadowed by its signaling function in Condition 2. These results suggest the importance of taking into account the functional value of stimuli when analyzing infant attention.
在关于婴儿注意力的实验中，突然呈现的刺激会引发定向反应（OR）。刺激持续存在会增强其视觉探索行为。随后再次呈现该刺激时，它就开始预示有东西可供观看。本研究的目的是梳理刺激的这三种功能价值对引发定向反应的影响。五十名4个月大的婴儿（平均年龄M = 120天）被随机分配到三种实验条件之一。在条件1中，他们接受了12次时长为2秒的视觉刺激呈现。在条件2中，同样的12次短刺激呈现伴随着另一个事件的呈现，该事件在婴儿的目光转向第一个刺激后可见。条件3是婴儿对照程序：相同的刺激被反复呈现，并且只要婴儿看着它就一直显示。在每种条件下，一半的婴儿观看4×4的棋盘图案，另一半观看8×8的图案。在对一种棋盘图案进行重复呈现的这个阶段之后，呈现另一种图案进行两次测试试验，随后对最初的第一种图案进行两次去习惯化试验。当刺激的引发功能（条件1）被分离出来时，随着试验次数的增加，定向反应减少，并且根据刺激的复杂性，反应潜伏期也不同。另一方面，刺激的分离功能（条件2）提高了其引发定向反应的能力。刺激复杂性是条件1和条件3中定向反应习惯化、注意力恢复和去习惯化的一个决定性因素，但在条件2中，它的信号功能使其黯然失色。这些结果表明，在分析婴儿注意力时，考虑刺激的功能价值很重要。
