Freeze-Frame: a new infant inhibition task and its relation to frontal cortex tasks during infancy and early childhood

J Exp Child Psychol. 2008 Jun;100(2):89-114. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2007.09.004. Epub 2008 Feb 4.

Abstract

The current study investigated a new, easily administered, visual inhibition task for infants termed the Freeze-Frame task. In the new task, 9-month-olds were encouraged to inhibit looks to peripheral distractors. This was done by briefly freezing a central animated stimulus when infants looked to the distractors. Half of the trials presented an engaging central stimulus, and the other half presented a repetitive central stimulus. Three measures of inhibitory function were derived from the task and compared with performance on a set of frontal cortex tasks administered at 9 and 24 months of age. As expected, infants' ability to learn to selectively inhibit looks to the distractors at 9 months predicted performance at 24 months. However, performance differences in the two Freeze-Frame trial types early in the experiment also turned out to be an important predictor. The results are discussed in terms of the validity of the Freeze-Frame task as an early measure of different components of inhibitory function.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Attention
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Frontal Lobe / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant Behavior
  • Inhibition, Psychological*
  • Male
  • Pilot Projects
  • Space Perception
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Videotape Recording