UC Davis

The visual paired comparison procedure (VPC) is a useful method that allows researchers to derive measures of observable looking behavior to address fundamental questions about learning and memory in preverbal populations. In this dissertation, I discuss the use of the VPC procedure for assessing information processing during infancy. In the first chapter, I provide general theoretical background about the VPC procedure. In the second chapter, I explore whether infants in a non-Western context display the patterns of associations we would expect from decades of research on infant VPC performance in Western samples. In the third chapter, I examine whether infants in rural Malawi show the same patterns longitudinally as infants in Western contexts. In the fourth chapter, I explore how the time available for infants to learn influences their memory in an online context. The overarching goal of this research is to critically examine the generalizability and reliability of infant VPC performance as well as examine how key aspects of infant attention influences their learning and subsequent memory in diverse contexts.