Differential Rates of Visual Information Processing in Full-Term and Preterm Infants

TLDR

The study examined how longer familiarization affects visual recognition memory in 6‑ and 12‑month‑old full‑term versus preterm infants. Infants viewed shapes for 10–30 s and were then tested for recognition memory with a paired‑comparison paradigm. Older infants required less familiarization than younger ones, but preterm infants needed considerably longer familiarization than full‑term infants at both ages, indicating persistent developmental lags in visual information processing through the first year.

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of increasing familiarization time on the visual recognition memory of 6- and 12-month-old full-term and preterm infants. Infants were given trials in which they viewed a shape for either 10-, 15-, 20-, or 30-sec familiarization and were then tested for visual recognition memory using the paired comparison technique. While the older infants showed evidence of recognition memory after less familiarization time than the younger ones, at both ages preterms required considerably longer familiarization than full-terms. The pattern of performance replicates our earlier finding of developmental lags in the visual information processing of 6-month-old preterms and extends these findings to 12-month-olds. These results suggest that there are persistent differences between preterm and full-term infants throughout at least the first year of life in this very fundamental aspect of cognition.