DEVELOPMENT OF AROUSAL-MODULATED VISUAL PREFERENCES IN EARLY INFANCY

Looking preferences to visual temporal frequencies between 1 and 8 Hz were studied longitudinally at 3 ages (newborn, 1 month, 4 months; N = 77) in 3 conditions: less aroused (after feeding), more aroused-internal (before feeding), and more aroused-external (after feeding with 8 Hz visual stimulation before each trial). Replicating and extending previous results, a strong interaction between arousal level and stimulus frequency was found at newborn and 1 month. Infants preferred faster stimuli when less aroused and slower stimuli when more aroused, with no differences between the 2 more aroused conditions even though produced by different operations. At 4 months, the interaction with arousal no longer existed; faster stimuli were preferred in all conditions. Thus, after the transition in visual behavior normally occurring at 2-3 months, arousal no longer played a major role, possibly as a result of emergent cortical sensory-specific attention.