Assessing the Feasibility of Using Eye Tracking to Study Infants' Cognitive Functioning in Rural Malawi

A battery of eye tracking tests was used to assess basic cognitive functions, such as anticipatory looking, sequence learning, and perception of facial expressions, of 39 Finnish and 37 Malawian infants 9 months of age. The study was conducted in Finland and Malawi to compare the acceptability of the eye tracking method and the quality of the eye tracking data collected from the two sites. The study design involved a general procedure, which included eye tracking assessment, structured observation of social communication skills, anthropometric assessment, and maternal report of child's living environment, mother-to-infant bond, and stressful life events. The eye tracking assessment consisted of three tasks: attention disengagement, switch-task, and visual search. The structured observation of social communication skills involved observing the infants' interactions with their caregivers. The anthropometric assessment included measuring the infants' height and weight. The study found that the majority of Finnish (95%) and Malawian (92%) infants were able to complete the whole assessment. At both sites, 95% or more of the participating mothers reported acceptability of the method. Examination of eye tracking data quality between the Finnish and Malawian testing sites showed similar patterns, although the overall completion rate and the overall proportion of valid trials were slightly in favor of the Finnish sample. However, there were no significant differences in task-specific data attrition rates between the two samples. The study concluded that the consistency of data retention and test acceptance rate between the Finnish and Malawian samples demonstrates the feasibility of eye tracking-based assessments of infants' cognition in low-resource settings. The study suggests that eye tracking is a promising tool for assessing early cognitive functions in Malawi and other low-income countries. However, further research is still needed to establish the validity of early-emerging cognitive markers as predictors of long-term health outcomes in childhood. The study's findings have implications for the development of early childhood interventions in low-income settings. Eye tracking technology can provide a non-invasive and objective measure of infants' cognitive functioning, which can inform the development of targeted interventions to support early childhood development. The study's results also highlight the importance of considering the cultural and contextual factors that may influence the acceptability and feasibility of eye tracking assessments in low-income settings. The study's methodology involved a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative data. The study used a battery of eye tracking tests to assess basic cognitive functions, which provided a quantitative measure of the infants' cognitive functioning. The study also used structured observation and maternal report to provide a qualitative understanding of the infants' social communication skills and living environment.