Understanding An Infant’s Actions Through Eye Tracking
A recent study published as a thesis project at the University of Michigan used eye tracking on infants to explore how babies develop their understanding of intention, or more specifically, being able to understand how behavior guided internally is different from their actions and the objects around them. Basically, the researchers wanted to discover how infants begin to understand that they can do something if they desire.
Using a Tobii Eye Tracker, researchers equipped a group of infants in an attempt to track infant processing and learning about ongoing actions, both successful and failed ones. They found that it was effective to study anticipatory looking patterns, looking at the goal of the action before the actual action is completed. There were some interesting questions asked–At what point did the infants in the study see their failed actions as guided by intentions “not manifested in action?” Do they notice within their first year? And what is their understanding of success and failure in actions?
Predictive looks tended to help the researchers in their study, as it’s typical for infants to look in anticipation at various things in the process of decision making or carrying out an action. The researchers used the Tobii equipment utilizing a corneal reflection technique to measure where exactly the infants looked as they observed a series of videos. With infrared light sources mounted near the eye tracking monitor, researchers could use the equipment to observe patterns on the corneas of the infants’ eyes. The patterns were recorded by a camera mounted on the eye tracker, calibrated to measure the three-dimensional position and location of each eyeball and where the infant looked on the screen.
In the study, the scientists used eye tracking to tell what exactly an infants’ eyes are attracted to when viewing intentional actions. How do they shift their attention around as various choices and decisions unfold over time? They could observe how a participant’s decisions could change over time through the experiment as well as developmentally over a longer time frame.
In the end, they were able to determine three things: infants under the age of one can understand and predict the goal of failed-reaching action. Throughout their development, they can understand successful actions before they understand failed actions. And finally, their understanding of a failed action is associated with their ability to move independently.
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