The relation of affect to attention and learning in infancy

The relation of positive affect to attention and learning was examined in 5 -, 7-, and 9-month-olds (N = 84). Affect and attention were assessed while the infants inspected a photograph. Affect was rated globally, for overall mood, and specifically, for amount of time smiling. Attention was indexed b y the duration of the infant's longest (or peak) look, a measure previously linked to differential cognitive performance. At all ages, positive affect (shown by approximately half the infants) was associated with long look du rations and slower learning, as assessed on a task in which infants learned to distinguish a familiar face from a series of novel faces. By contrast, neutral affect was associated with short looks and faster learning. Affect and look duration had synergistic effects, in that learning was faster than expected for infants who displayed both short looks and neutral affect. Th ese findings are compatible with adult research that links positive affect to less analytical processing, and provide the first evidence that affect m ay be associated with the speed of processing differences implicated in sho rt and long looking.