Attentional Preference and Experience: II. An Exploratory Longitudinal Study of the Effects of

The human infant is now considered capable of active informational interaction with the environment. This study tested Certain hypotheses concerning the nature of that interaction, These hypotheses, developed partly from Piaget's work, are (1) that repeated visual encounters with a stimulus pattern leads first to attentional preference for that pattern, before leading to preference for an unfamiliar pattern and (2) that patterns responsive to an infant's own acts will acquire an extra attractiveness. Study subjects, 15 infants, approximately 1 month old, had 2 patterns (colorful mobiles of yarn, match boxes or paper umbrellas) introduced above their cribs when they were 4-5 weeks of age. One of these patterns was stable and one was set up to be responsive to the infants ' movements, but variation in size and mobility of cribs in the various homes made data relating to the second hypothesis invalid. After the infants had had 4 weeks of familiarization with the patterns, observers tested them twice for attentional preference, with a third, unfamiliar pattern added above the crib. Another period of 4 weeks was followed by a final test. Results indicated initial attentional preference for familiar patterns, followed by preference for unfamiliar patterns after the additional period. (MH