PREFERENTIAL LOOKING - A SUDDEN SHIFT IN VISUAL FIXATION PATTERN AT 32 MONTHS OF AGE

Observations of eye movements of young children in a modified preferen tial looking task suggest a change in the visual looking pattern takin g place during a very brief time between 32 and 33 months of age. In t he younger children, a grating stimulus elicited eye movements towards the target followed by a few seconds of focused attention; in the old er children a visual avoidance behavior was observed where subjects lo oked consistently in the opposite direction of the target. An analysis of video recordings suggests that this avoidance pattern was a compos ite of a very brief initial target-directed eyemovement which was quic kly arrested, and followed by eye movements in the opposite direction, initiating a search of the visual scene.