VISUAL-ATTENTION AND THE CONTROL OF EYE-MOVEMENTS IN EARLY INFANCY

Experiments concerned with the development of volitional (endogenous) control of eye movements (overt orienting) in infants are described. This evidence indicates that infants are capable of the voluntary control of eye movements by around 4 months of age. Next, experiments that attempt to measure covert shifts of Visual attention in early infancy are reviewed, and the results of a study involving the exogenous cueing of covert attention reported. These results indicate that 4-month-old infants, like adults, show both facilitation and subsequent inhibition of responding to a cued spatial location. In contrast, a group of 2-month-old infants did not show these effects within the temporal parameters studied. Finally, I speculate on the underlying neural basis of these developments, and on their implication for the relation between covert shifts of attention and eye movements.