Object‐centered attention in 8‐month‐old infants

Abstract

We examined the extent to which visual orienting in 8‐month‐old infants shows evidence of being guided by object‐based representations. Infants’ preferences to look at conspicuous targets presented on one of two stationary objects were measured following an event (cue) which directed their covert attention to one of the objects. The results indicate that by 8 months of age a cue presented on one part of an object directs attention to the whole object (object‐centered attention). This then affects responses to targets that appear elsewhere on the cued object.