Magnitude of Discrepancy and the Distribution of Attention in Infants

Abstract

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Schema formation and stimulus–schema discrepancy: A basic unit and its properties.

“…Second, the results show unambiguously that the mathematical function of discrepancy from a standard is quadratic, not linear; multiplicative, not additive. This supported previous findings (McCall et al, 1977; McCall & Kagan, 1967; Super et al, 1972) and most directly those of Kinney and Kagan (1976) who used auditory stimuli. Third, the results with 65-hr-old neonates strongly imply that the discrepancy phenomenon is a characteristic of human information processing that is inherent.…”

“…Initial tests of stimulus – schema discrepancy with infants focused on visual fixation as a measure of attention (e.g., Friedman et al, 1974; McCall & Kagan, 1970) and to a lesser extent, to visual searching and cardiac deceleration as measures of attention to auditory stimuli (Kinney & Kagan, 1976). Researchers attempted to determine whether the effect of stimulus discrepancy from an experimentally introduced standard (the schema) was curvilinear as claimed by earlier theorists, or linear as some early research seemed to indicate (e.g., Cohen et al, 1971; Fantz, 1964; McCall et al, 1977; Melson & McCall, 1970; Welch, 1974). Results over multiple studies more consistently supported a curvilinear effect (e.g., Hopkins et al, 1976, Kinney & Kagan, 1976; McCall & Kagan, 1967; Super et al, 1972; Weiss et al, 1988).…”

“…Results over multiple studies more consistently supported a curvilinear effect (e.g., Hopkins et al, 1976, Kinney & Kagan, 1976; McCall & Kagan, 1967; Super et al, 1972; Weiss et al, 1988). Indeed, McCall et al (1977) reported 25 independent groups of infants that displayed the inverted U discrepancy effect.…”

“…Some researchers used adult consensus for the ordering of complexity and the distances separating the stimuli (e.g., P. R. Zelazo et al, 1973); others used statistical strategies to create a unitary scale (e.g., McCall et al, 1977; McCall & Kennedy, 1980). Virtually all stimuli that were sufficiently compelling to maintain attention with infants 3 months of age and older, and that covered a broad enough range of stimulation to assess curvilinearity, were confounded with other characteristics of the stimuli (Thomas, 1971).…”

Why the time is ripe for an education revolution

“…Children seek challenges and struggle to overcome them, focusing on what is slightly more difficult than what they can do easily-at the edges of their "zones of proximal development" (Harter, 1978;Vygotsky, 1978;Danner and Lonky, 1981;Gerken et al, 2011;Téglás and Bonatti, 2016;Cubit et al, 2021). Absent external interference, in natural contexts, children seem to have inner guides directing them to the right level of challenge to develop themselves and to learn (Montessori, 1967(Montessori, /1995McCall et al, 1977;Gerken et al, 2011).…”