the effect of decreased general irritability oninfant's attention

introduction : the dynamic interaction between mother and infant is one of the indicative factors of infants’ social and emotional development especially in stressful situations as cognitive evaluating. methods: an experimental study was completed in 2010 in tehran on a total of 40 infants (18 boys and 22girls) forming two alternative groups and varying in age of infancy (4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months). we used a 60 second mute popular “tom & jerry” animation to compare the infants’ attention in the presence or absence of mothers’ lap. changes in orientation time, duration of sustained attention, and the total look duration were measured in terms of eye movement and heart rate changes through pulse oximeter. furthermore, infants’ presence of general irritability in both conditions was observed. results: we found that infants in their mothers’ laps showed more length of total look duration and sustained attention and less amount of general irritability than those sitting on baby seats. however, we have found no significant differences in infants’ total look duration, sustained attention and general irritability across age. moreover, no significant differences in infants’ orientation were found across two groups of infants’ positioning. conclusion: mother’s presence in the site can be considered as an external force of controlling for kids in doing their tasks thereby increasing their duration of focusing attention on the task. declaration of interest : none. keywords: infant positioning, sustain attention