Temperament as a predictor of individual differences in infant visual attention: An event-related potential analysis

This study examined the relationship between the development of infants' self-regulatory capacities, defined as temperament, and visual attention to discrepancy. Twenty-two healthy six-to-nine month old infants were recruited as participants to investigate how variability in visual attention may be attributed to biologically-based individual differences in reactivity. Components of the infants' temperament, assessed by parental report on the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ; Rothbart, 1981), were compared with neurophysiological (brain event-related potentials, or ERPs) and visual fixation indices of task-related attention. It was predicted that more temperamentally reactive infants would demonstrate greater attention to novelty and stimulus discrepancy while engaged in a modified visual discrimination task, as evidenced through components of their ERPs (specifically Pb, NSW, and Nc) and looking behavior.;Results therefore support the hypothesis that individual differences in biologically-based elements of self-regulation and reactivity influence the elaboration of cognitive processes, as measured through scalp-recorded ERPs. These results are discussed with regard to the role individual differences in attention and temperament may play in directing infants' interactions with the environment and in their socioemotional and cognitive development.;Results supported previous findings regarding the use of components of the ERP to reference infants' cognitive processing, such that Nc and NSW were differentially responsive to stimulus discrepency and novelty. Additionally, evidence was obtained for a significant relationship between dimensions of temperament indexed by the IBQ and the ERP indices of differential stimulus attention. Specifically, the IBQ Activity subscale, a trait measure of gross motor behavior and arousal, was found to correlate with the magnitude of difference in NSW area and Nc amplitude between Novel and Frequent stimulus registration at frontal and parietal scalp (i.e., FZ and PZ). Multiple regression and covariate analysis of group differences on the Activity subscale identified significant differences in ERP attentional responses to discrepancy. More active infants demonstrated larger NSW area and Nc amplitude to total stimulus differences, while less active infants were most responsive to novelty. Looking behavior did not appear to be similarly influenced by temperament, however.