Gaze-contingent attention training for infants

Gaze-contingent attention training for infants
Abstract for EyePlay meeting @ CHI Play 2014
Sam Wass PhD
Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.
email: [email protected]
address: MRC CBU, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK.
telephone: +44 20 7998 3631
Evidence from developmental neuroscience suggests that the brain is more
plastic (malleable) at early stages of development (Heckman, 2006). Within
development psychology, research is suggesting that, for some children, deficits
in attention control ('concentration' in layman's terms) can emerge during infancy
and early childhood, and play a role in impairing subsequent learning in a variety
of other areas (such as academic and other social settings) (Wass, 2014).
These findings suggest that the earlier that we start trying to improve long-term
cognitive outcomes the better. This is true both for a) typical children and for b)
those considered at particularly 'high risk' of developing clinical conditions (due to
genetic or epidemiological factors). Yet virtually no previous research has
provided targeted cognitive training for very young (<4-year-old) individuals
(Wass, Scerif & Johnson, 2012). This is primarily because infants lack the fine
motor skills to interact with a training regime that operates via mouse or touch
screen.
In this presentation I present a series of gaze-contingent targeted cognitive
training paradigms designed at improving concentration abilities in infants and
young children (Wass, 2011). These paradigms have been developed over an
extensive (5-year) development period, under funding from the Medical Research
Council (UK), the Wellcome Trust, the National Institutes of Health Research, the
Nuffield Foundation, the European Science Foundation and others. They are
designed for use in home settings, interfacing via a Tobii remote eye tracker,
Matlab/Psychtoolbox and the Matlab SDK. Six different cartoon-based training
tasks will be presented that target interference resolution, working memory, and
sustained (focused attention). The variety of methodological challenges involved
in designing gaze contingent interfaces for very young individuals will be
discussed.
I also present the results of a series of randomised controlled trials conducted to
evaluate the effectiveness of the training paradigms in training attention control in
infants and young children. Results are presented from current and ongoing
studies with typical infants (current N=c.150 infants) conducted across a number
of testing centres (UK, EU and US), including data showing maintenance of
training improvement relative to an active control group following 5 20-minute
training sessions at 2-month follow-up.
Data are also presented from ongoing collaborations that use gaze-contingent
attention control training to improve learning outcomes in ‘high-risk’ or atypical
individuals. These include projects with infants and toddlers at risk of Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (in a collaboration with Mark Johnson at the Centre
for Brain and Cognitive Development, London and Patrick Bolton at the Institute
of Psychiatry, London) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (with Sue Leekham at
Cardiff University), infants from low socio-economic status backgrounds (with
Derek Moore at the University of East London) and with Rett syndrome (with
Susan Rose and Sasha Djukic at the Albert Einstein Medical Centre, New York).
References:
Heckman, J. J. Skill formation and the economics of investing in disadvantaged
children. Science. 312, 1900-1902 (2006).
Wass, S.V. (2014). Applying cognitive training to target executive functions
during early development. Child Neuropsychology.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2014.882888 pdf
Wass, S.V., Scerif, G. & Johnson, M.H. (2012). Training attentional control and
working memory – is younger, better? Developmental Review 32 (4), 360–
387. pdf
Wass, S.V., Porayska-Pomsta, K. & Johnson, M.H. (2011). Training attentional
control in infancy. Current Biology 21 (18), 1543-1547. pdf Egs of press coverage
of this paper: Science Daily (US), Telegraph (UK).

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