Holistic and Analytic Attention in Infancy: A Cross-Cultural Study in Sweden and Zimbabwe

Abstract

This pre-registered eye-tracking study assesses whether there are differences in infants' attention allocation across diverse cultural contexts while taking several social-environmental factors into account. More specifically, we assess whether 9-month-old infants (n = 338; 166 girls, 172 boys) show holistic or analytic viewing when they are presented with naturalistic images, including 32 real-world images (8 outdoor and 8 indoor scenes from two cultural contexts). Infants came from families living in Uppsala, Sweden (Swedish n = 178, Arab n = 1, Bengali n = 1, Finnish n = 1) and Harare, Zimbabwe (Shona n = 136, Karanga n = 4, Malawian n = 1, Ndebele n = 1, Chewa n = 1, Hwesa n = 1, Zambian n = 1). Results demonstrate that attention allocation is different in these cultures in infancy, but that each culture has a unique pervasive, and dynamic attentional style that includes a mix of holistic and analytic components.