Time of Day Effects on Eye-Tracking Acquisition in Infants at Higher Likelihood for Atypical Developmental Outcomes

Time of Day (ToD) of eye-tracking data acquisition may be a confounding variable that disproportionately impacts certain groups. This research examines attentional differences between infants with Lower-Likelihood (LL) and Higher-Likelihood (HL) for atypical developmental outcomes. We find that LL infants tend to pay more overall attention to eye-tracking probes during midday than their HL counterparts. Future research should examine and address factors underlying ToD-associated group differences and explore frameworks for systematically addressing additional eye-tracking confounding variables.