Autonomic correlates of individual differences in sensitization and look duration during infancy

Infant visual habituation

“…In support of the theory, most of the studies published in this area demonstrated that more intense or complex stimuli did in fact generally produce sensitization (i.e., increases in looking) at early points during repetitive stimulus sequences (Bashinski et al, 1985; Colombo, Frick, & Gorman, 1997; Kaplan & Werner, 1986, 1987; Peterzell, 1993; but see Maikranz, Colombo, Richman, & Frick, 2000). In addition, given that infants of different ages would perceive various stimuli as being more or less complex (Brennan, Ames, & Moore, 1966; Cohen, DeLoache, & Rissman, 1975), it was demonstrated that different stimuli would elicit sensitization at different ages (see Kaplan et al, 1990).…”

“…It should be noted that, aside from the demonstrations of the viability of dual process theory in infant attention, there has been little research on arousal and sensitization and its influence on infant cognition. Colombo et al (1997) did observe that 4-month-olds showing sensitization habituated more slowly than those who did not; however, a subsequent study using both behavioral and psychophysiological measures did not observe any convergent autonomic correlate in infants showing sensitization versus those who did not (Maikranz et al, 2000). …”

Information processing efficiency and regulation at five months

“…Median peak look to the glove puppet stimulus during the pre-distress attention processing task was used to classify infants as short lookers (SL) or long lookers (LL) (Maikranza et al, 2000). In several studies with 4-month-olds, the median peak look to a 2-dimensional photograph of a female face was between 10 and 15 seconds (Colombo et al, 1991).…”

“…Since LL encode visual stimuli more slowly and have more intervals of visual attention, they may demonstrate a lower HR than SL. In addition, longer looking infants have shown significantly greater HR changes to stimulus onsets than shorter looking infants, connecting arousal to individual differences in look duration (Maikranz, Colombo, Richman, & Frick, 2000). An increase in HR reactivity at onset of stimulus presentation may be delaying the initiation of visual processing and encoding leading to longer periods of sustained attention and lower HR activity for LL compared to SL infants (Colombo & Mitchell, 2008).…”

Your Eyes Say “No,” But Your Heart Says “Yes”: Behavioral and Psychophysiological Indices in Infant Quantitative Processing

“…While few studies directly compare behavioral and physiological measures of infant cognition, most studies have found convergence between these two types of measures (Colombo, Richman, Shaddy, Greenhoot, & Maikranz, 2001; Elsner, Pauen, & Jeschonek, 2006; Frick & Richards, 2001; Lansick, Mintz, & Richards, 2000; Lansink, Mintz, & Richards, 2000; Shaddy & Colombo, 2004). One explanation for the relationship between these measures is that the same underlying processes (attention and arousal) account for responses in both of the measures (Colombo, et al, 2001; Maikranz, Colombo, Richman, & Frick, 2000; Richards & Casey, 1991). …”