UC Davis

This dissertation presents three studies exploring the important role of experience in shaping infants’ visual attention and learning in infancy. In the first chapter, I provide a general overview of each chapter. In Chapter 2, I examine similarities and differences in the eye movements of 6- to 9-month-old infants from the Sacramento Valley in the US and from rural Malawi in an adaptation of the Infant Orienting With Attention (IOWA) paradigm (Ross-Sheehy et al., 2015). This work adds to a growing literature focused on including more diverse samples of infants in research (Visser et al., 2022; Zaadnoordijk et al., 2021). Extending the findings from Chapter 2, in Chapter 3, I examine the Malawian infants’ visual attention longitudinally over a 6-month period, shedding light on developmental change and stability over time. Together, Chapters 2 and 3 discuss the shared and distinct developmental trajectories within varying cultural and environmental contexts. In Chapter 4, I examine the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the use of face masks, on a sample of Sacramento Valley infants’ face processing and learning. Finally, Chapter 5 presents a broad overview of the main findings from each study, underscoring the interplay between culture, context, and input and how infants’ developing cognitive processes adapt to diverse experiences.