*Visual Stimuli IDENTIFIERS Information Processing (Psychological); *Serial

This study examines serial habituation in a sample of 54 infants aged 2, 3, and 4 months to determine whether age changes are partially a function of different "strategies " rather than simply different rates of habituation. The serial habituation hypothesis proposes that attention and habituation of attention proceed in order of the relative saliencies of cues. This hypothesi was examined cross sectionally, longitudinally within subjects, and longitudinally between subjects (by cohorts) using a traditional habituation paradigm. Individual components.of the standard stimulus were displayed before and aftersuccessive exposures of the standard for familiarization. Relative saliencies.of the individual components for each child were indexed by measuring the degree of response produced by the initial presentation. When pre- and post-exposure fixation times were compared, it appeared that for all ages habituation vas