Are our samples representative? Understanding whether temperament influences infant dropout rates at 3 and 7 months

Maximizing valid eye-tracking data in human and macaque infants by optimizing calibration and adjusting areas of interest

Remote eye tracking with automated corneal reflection provides insights into the emergence and development of cognitive, social, and emotional functions in human infants and non-human primates. However, because most eye-tracking systems were designed for use in human adults, the accuracy of eye-tracking data collected in other populations is unclear, as are potential approaches to minimize measurement error. For instance, data quality may differ across species or ages, which are necessary considerations for comparative and developmental studies. Here we examined how the calibration method and adjustments to areas of interest (AOIs) of the Tobii TX300 changed the mapping of fixations to AOIs in a cross-species longitudinal study. We tested humans (N = 119) at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 14 months of age and macaques (Macaca mulatta; N = 21) at 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 6 months of age. In all groups, we found improvement in the proportion of AOI hits detected as the number of successful calibration points increased, suggesting calibration approaches with more points may be advantageous. Spatially enlarging and temporally prolonging AOIs increased the number of fixation-AOI mappings, suggesting improvements in capturing infants' gaze behaviors; however, these benefits varied across age groups and species, suggesting different parameters may be ideal, depending on the population studied. In sum, to maximize usable sessions and minimize measurement error, eye-tracking data collection and extraction approaches may need adjustments for the age groups and species studied. Doing so may make it easier to standardize and replicate eye-tracking research findings.

Infant negative affectivity and patterns of affect-biased attention

Biased attention toward affective cues often cooccurs with the emergence and maintenance of internalizing disorders. However, few studies have assessed whether affect-biased attention in infancy relates to early indicators of psychopathological risk, such as negative affectivity. The current study evaluates whether negative affectivity relates to affect-biased attention in 6-month-old infants. Affect-biased attention was assessed via a free-viewing eye-tracking task in which infants were presented with a series of face pairs (comprised of a happy, angry, or sad face and a neutral face). Attention was quantified with metrics of both attention orienting and attention holding. Overall, infants showed no differences in attention orienting (i.e., speed of looking) or attention holding (i.e., duration of looking) toward emotional faces in comparison to the neutral face pairs. Negative affectivity, assessed via parent report, did not relate to attention orienting but was associated with biased attention toward positive, happy faces and away from threat-cueing, angry faces in comparison to the neutral faces they were paired with. These findings suggest that negative affectivity is associated with differences in attention holding, but not initial orienting toward emotional faces; biases which have important implications for the trajectory of socioemotional development.

Parent-Infant Interaction Tasks Adapted for Remote Testing: Strengths, Challenges, and Recommendations

The closure of in-person laboratories and decreased safety of face-to-face interactions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic jeopardized the ability of many developmental researchers to continue data collection during this time. Disruptions in data collection are particularly damaging to longitudinal studies, in which the testing of different age groups occurs on a continuous basis, and data loss at one time point can have cascading effects across subsequent time points and threaten the viability of the study. In an effort to continue collecting data for a longitudinal study on emotion development started in-person pre-pandemic, we adapted two parent-infant interaction tasks (free-play task and toy removal task) for a remote testing framework. Our procedure for pivoting these tasks to a supervised, remote online testing framework is outlined and the associated strengths and challenges of testing in this format (e.g., feasibility and implementation, testing environment and task setup validity, and accessibility, recruitment, and diversity) are critically evaluated. Considerations for applying this framework to other behavioral tasks are discussed and recommendations are provided.