Patterns of stability and continuity in attention across early infancy

Abstract

Models of stability and continuity in infant development are examined and illustrated in a short-term longitudinal study of infant attention in several tasks. Four approaches to quantifying infant attention are described: habituation, recovery, duration, and brief exposure. With respect to stability and continuity, four possible patterns of development obtain: stability and continuity, stability and discontinuity, instability and continuity, and instability and discontinuity. Instability and discontinuity patterns are the most prominent descriptions of development of attention in infancy, but all four possible patterns of development are in evidence, andeven in the first months of life, even within a single domain of infant development.