Abstract

This study is aimed at testing: 1) if habituation technique can be utilized as a tool to evaluate attentional and visual recognition memory capabilities starting from the first month of life; 2) the predictive value and the correlational continuity of these indexes over time. A longitudinal experiment was carried out to test a group of full term healthy infants of one, three and five months of age. An infant control habituation paradigm was utilized with the presentation of geometrical stimuli. The performances at the three ages levels were measured and correlated. The results show that infants of all the three ages levels habituate to a stimulus and prefer the new one to the familiar. The correlation was significant only for infants of three and five months.