Pupillometry in Infancy Research

The human pupil is a small opening in each eye that dilates in response not only to changes in luminance, but also to novel events. Therefore, changes in pupil diameter are an attractive measure in studies on infants' and young children's physical and social cognition. However, designing a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of cognition and development Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 359 - 377
Main Authors Hepach, Robert, Westermann, Gert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Philadelphia Psychology Press 26.05.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Child development
Cognition & reasoning
Eye movements
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Summary:The human pupil is a small opening in each eye that dilates in response not only to changes in luminance, but also to novel events. Therefore, changes in pupil diameter are an attractive measure in studies on infants' and young children's physical and social cognition. However, designing and interpreting pupillometry studies for developmental populations come with caveats. Here we give an overview of how psychologically induced changes in pupil diameter have been investigated and interpreted in developmental studies. We highlight the methodological challenges when designing experiments for infants and young children and provide several suggestions to address common problems. The fact that pupillometry provides a sensitive measure of the time course of responses to novelty extends the scope of possibilities for researchers studying infant cognition and development.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-General Information-1
content type line 14
ISSN:1524-8372
1532-7647
DOI:10.1080/15248372.2015.1135801