Long-term retention in 3.5-month-olds: Familiarization time and individualdifferences in attentional style

Using a paired-comparison procedure, we examined the effect of Familiarizat ion variables on 3.5-month-old infants' (n = 120) retention of dynamic visu al stimuli after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays. The proportion of rural looking time to the novel stimulus revealed novelty, null, and familiarity preferences after 1-min, 1-day, and 1-month delays, respectively, for infan ts who were permitted 30 s of familiarization rime. Twenty seconds of famil iarization time was insufficient to produce novelty preferences. These resu lts support models of infant retention in which the direction of attentiona l preferences (novel, familiar, or null) depends on memory accessibility To examine the impact of individual differences in familiarization or attenti onal style on memory, infants were identified as long or short lookers acco rding to their peak-look duration on pretest and familiarization trial meas ures. Compared to long lookers, short lookers showed better retention over time indicating that much of the variability in the infant group data could be accounted for by these individual differences. (C) 2001 by Academic Pre ss.