From Focus to Function: Longitudinal Insights Into Infant Attention and Emerging Executive Functions via Remote Webcam Eye Tracking

Growing evidence suggests that infant attention may predict subsequent cognitive outcomes. However, prior studies have predominantly tested small samples of infants in tightly controlled laboratory settings that differ from the complex, visually rich environments that infants experience in their day-to-day lives. The present study addresses this gap by measuring infant sustained attention in the home using novel remote webcam eye tracking methodology. A large, demographically diverse sample of 3- to 12-month old infants (N = 160; 49% = female; 65% from low- to extremely low-income households; 48% White, 18% Black, 16% Hispanic/Latine, 9% more than one race, 5% Asian, and 4% other) were recruited across the United States. Infants were remotely administered a free-viewing video task previously validated in lab-based studies, and infant look durations and gaze shifts were measured using remote webcam eye tracking. Our results revealed expected age-related changes in infant look durations and no effects of family demographics on variations in infant attention. Notably, we also found that variation in infant attention predicted emerging executive functions in a subset of infants (N = 78) who participated in a subsequent longitudinal assessment using the Early Executive Functions Questionnaire. This research adds to a growing literature validating the use of at-home remote assessments for objective measurement of infant cognition. This is a notable step toward advancing ecological validity and accessibility of developmental psychology studies in diverse samples. Ultimately, these findings may have important implications for characterizing normative developmental trajectories and for understanding how early sociocultural contexts shape these trajectories.