Music Therapy Today - World Federation of Music Therapy

Infants can organise visual information at just four months
The study also has implications for understanding certain developmental
disorders such as Williams syndrome.
The findings emerged from Economic and Social Research Council
funded research investigating different styles of visual attention in babies
from the age of two to eight months.
Paying attention to visual stimuli is important in the development of
object recognition, and is also needed for the development of memory,
motor skills and other key abilities.
Led by psychologists Dr Emily Farran at the University of Reading and
Dr Janice Brown at London South Bank University, the initial aim of the
research was to investigate the underlying reasons why some babies are
‘short-lookers’ and shift visual attention rapidly, while others are ‘long-
lookers’ who keep their attention fixed for longer.
Previously, these categories were thought to be relatively stable traits
indicative of individual differences, with links to later cognitive develop-
ment.
However, the research revealed that babies often move between these
two categories over the timescale studied.
“The literature talks about the short-looking and long-looking categories,
and links to later abilities are suggested. Unusually, we looked at this lon-
gitudinally, so we were able to pick up that these categories weren’t sta-
ble” says Dr Farran. “So these differences can’t be indicative of
differential brain development, or predictive of later abilities.”
Odds and ends - themes and trends 445