Davidson, Christina
(2025)
Developmental changes in child visual neurocognition and play interactions.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Visual cognition emerges in infancy and plays a fundamental role in cognitive, academic, and lifelong outcomes. Despite its significance, the early environmental and brain mechanisms that shape visual cognition development remain poorly understood. This thesis investigates the influence of caregivers and stimulus characteristics on early visual cognition through a series of experimental studies examining behaviour and brain function in infants and toddlers.
The first study examined whether caregivers’ ability to regulate inhibitory control was linked to infants’ visual working memory processing. Caregivers completed a Go-NoGo task to assess inhibitory control efficiency, while their infants engaged in a preferential looking task with simultaneous functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) recording. Although no direct relationship was found between caregiver inhibitory control and infant visual working memory behaviour, an indirect link emerged: infants with less efficient caregivers showed greater modulation of parietal activity with increasing task difficulty, whereas those with more efficient caregivers exhibited more stable responses. These findings highlight how caregiver cognitive traits may influence infant brain function during early memory processing.
The second study explored how caregiver-infant behaviours during dyadic play interactions related to infant visual working memory. Infants aged between 6 and 10 months and their caregivers participated in two types of play interactions, single object (SO) and multi-component object (MO) play. Both play interactions were coded for caregiver scaffolding, caregiver intrusiveness, infant object engagement, and infant distractibility. Infant visual working memory was assessed via a preferential looking task. Results revealed that scaffolding and object engagement were higher in MO play, and that specific caregiver-infant interaction patterns during MO play were associated with visual working memory performance. Moreover, caregiver behaviours were directly associated with infant prefrontal activation, suggesting that real-time interaction qualities impact emerging visual memory systems.
The third study followed the same dyads longitudinally to assess changes in caregiver-child interaction from infancy (6–10 months) to toddlerhood (18–22 months). Across both SO and MO play, scaffolding, intrusiveness, object engagement, and distractibility behaviours were coded. While toddlers showed higher engagement and lower distractibility during MO play, caregiver behaviours remained consistent across contexts. Longitudinal analyses revealed that early caregiver scaffolding in SO play predicted greater toddler engagement and reduced distractibility one year later. These findings point to the enduring role of early play interactions in shaping attentional and regulatory development.
Finally, the fourth study investigated the influence of stimulus complexity on toddler visual cognition and its association with dyadic interactions. Toddlers completed two versions of the preferential looking task, one with simple coloured shapes and one with complex real-world images, while behavioural metrics and fNIRS were recorded. Although behavioural performance varied by stimulus complexity, brain activation patterns remained stable, with consistent engagement of fronto-parietal regions. Cross-task comparisons revealed shared behavioural and brain engagement patterns, suggesting a common underlying mechanism. Additionally, caregiver scaffolding and toddler object engagement during concurrent MO play was associated with toddler visual working memory performance in the complex task, highlighting the role of real-world interactions in supporting cognition, especially when experimental tasks mirror naturalistic contexts.
Together, these studies provide novel insights into the factors that shape early visual cognition development. They underscore the critical role of caregivers in fostering cognitive growth through inhibitory control, play interactions, and scaffolding, while also highlighting the importance of ecologically valid stimuli in understanding visual cognition. These findings contribute to the broader field of early neurocognitive development and have implications for designing interventions to support optimal cognitive outcomes and understanding individual differences in young children.
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