Visual response decrement as a function of age of human newborn.

FRIEDMAN, STEVEN, and CARPENTER, GENEVIEVE C. Visual Response Decrement as a Function of Age of Human Newborn. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 1967-1973. Younger and older newborn human Ss (N = 96) were exposed to 1 of 2 visual stimuli: a 2 X 2 or a 12 X 12 black and white checkerboard target, in an experiment employing a 2 x 2 x 2 x 8 (age X sex X target X trials) factorial design with repeated measures on 1 factor (trials). Using visual fixation as the dependent variable, the results indicate (a) a significant age effect (p < .025) and age x trials interaction (p < .025) in which older newborns (mean age = 78 hours) display a greater degree of response decrement over the 8 trials than do younger Ss (mean age = 38 hours), (b) an overall response decrement effect with repeated presentation of the visual stimuli (p < .001), and (c) a triple interaction between the number of elements in the visual stimulus, sex of the infant, and trials (p < .05). The significant sex x target X trials interaction replicates an earlier finding indicating a tendency for males to show more decrement to the 2 X 2 target and for females to show more decrement to the 12 X 12 target.