The Microstructure of Infants' Gaze as They View Adult Shifts in Overt Attention

We presented infants (5, 6, 9, and 12 months old) with movies in which a female model turned toward and fixated 1 of 2 toys placed oil a table. Infants' gaze was measured using a Tobii 1750 eye tracker. Six-, 9-, and 12-month-olds' first gaze shift from the model's face (after the model started turning) was directed to the attended toy. The 5-month-olds performed at random. Following this initial response, 5-, 6, and 9-month-olds performed more gaze shifts to the attended target; 12-month-olds performed at random. Infants at all ages displayed longer looking times to the attended toy. We discuss a number of explanations for 5-month-olds' ability to follow a shift in overt attention by an adult after an initially random response, including the possibility that infants' initial gaze response strengthens the representation of the objects in the peripheral visual field.